Volunteers sought for a new vaccine

VOLUNTEERS who live in Burton are being invited to join the latest vaccine study in the UK, which is examining a new Covid vaccine candidate and being run at Nottingham University Hospitals.

Developed by speciality vaccine company Valneva, the vaccine is being manufactured at the company’s site in Livingston, West Lothian. It is the only inactivated, adjuvanted (an ingredient to create a strong immune response) Covid vaccine in clinical development in Europe.

The study will be running across 22 National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) sites in England – including in Nottingham – and two sites in Scotland, and is open to healthy adults who have not had a previous Covid vaccine.

Professor Stephen Ryder, clinical director for research & Innovation and principal investigator for the Valneva vaccine clinical trial at Nottingham University Hospitals, said: “Vaccines are the way out of the Covid pandemic and it is essential we develop as many of them as we can, and get these vaccines into practice as quickly as possible.

“I would urge people living in Burton-on-trent, the nearby area, and South Derbyshire to come forward to find out if they are eligible to take part in the Valneva vaccine clinical trial, which is being managed by the specialist research team from our Clinical Research Facility, based at Queen’s Medical Centre.”

Researchers at Nottingham University Hospitals are looking to recruit 260 people from around the region into this study.

Unlike earlier vaccine studies, which involved a placebo dose, everyone involved in this trial will receive two active vaccine doses, administered in a four-week interval.

More details about the vaccine trial and how people can find out if they are eligible to take part in Nottingham are available on the NUH website: www.nuh.nhs.uk/ valneva-vaccine