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See the latest news and updates about COVID-19 and its impact on the Charlotte region, the Carolinas and beyond.

Charlotteans Can Soon Enroll In COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

vaccine
Retha Ferguson
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Pexels
Tryon Medical Partners in Charlotte will participate in a COVID-19 vaccine trial.

Charlotte’s Tryon Medical Partners is one of about 90 locations across the U.S. that will participate in the Phase 3 trial of a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the company Moderna.

 

 

The trial will take place at Tryon’s SouthPark location and will begin screening and enrolling participants as early as July 27. It plans to enroll at least 350 people and is not limited to existing Tryon patients. Some will receive the vaccine while others will receive a placebo.

 

The Moderna vaccine, called mRNA-1273, was developed with researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It was the first to be tested in humans. According to a preliminary reportpublished in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday, the vaccine appeared safe and produced a promising immune response in the first 45 people who received it.

 

“We are actively in the process of securing and putting everything in place with respect to approvals and study supplies,” said Amanda Wright, vice president of partnership development at Javara, a Winston-Salem-based research company that helps administer clinical trials at Tryon.

 

The Phase 3 vaccine trialwill enroll 30,000 people nationwide, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

 

“Most patients are going to want to know, ‘Am I going to catch the virus? Will this give me the virus and I get sick with COVID-19 from the vaccine?’ The answer is absolutely not,” said Dr. Dale Owen, Chief Executive Officer of Tryon Medical Partners.

 

Owen said the mRNA-1273 vaccine contains a component of the novel coronavirus called the “spike protein,” which generates an immune system response and produces antibodies.

 

People interested in enrolling in the Tryon Medical Partners trial should call 704-586-9386. Tryon spokesman Tom Williams said participants will be compensated but did not disclose how much. Wright said that Tryon plans to host additional coronavirus vaccine trials in the future.

 

Other North Carolina study locations listedfor the vaccine trial are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Carolina Institute for Clinical Research in Fayetteville, M3 Wake Research in Raleigh, Trial Management Associates in Wilmington and Wake Forest University Health Sciences.

 

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Claire Donnelly is WFAE's health reporter. She previously worked at NPR member station KGOU in Oklahoma and also interned at WBEZ in Chicago and WAMU in Washington, D.C. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and attended college at the University of Virginia, where she majored in Comparative Literature and Spanish. Claire is originally from Richmond, Virginia. Reach her at cdonnelly@wfae.org or on Twitter @donnellyclairee.