Call for help with Covid vaccine study

VOLUNTEERS who live in Burtonon-trent are being invited to join the latest vaccine study in the UK, which is examining a new Covid-19 vaccine candidate and being run at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH).

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 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-19 vaccine.

Professor Stephen Ryder, Clinical Director for Research & Innovation and Principal Investigator for the Valneva vaccine clinical trial at NUH, 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.”

Researchers at NUH are looking to recruit 260 people from around the region into this study. Unlike earlier studies, which involved a placebo, everyone involved in this trial will receive two active vaccine doses, in a four- week interval. Those enrolled over the age of 30 will be randomised to receive doses of either the Valneva vaccine, or the Oxford AZ one.