The Regional Government of Cantabria was proud to announce yesterday that Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital (located in the same autonomous community) was chosen to be one of the three Spanish research centres where trials will take place towards finding a Covid-19 vaccine. These international trials will include 550 volunteers, 190 of whom will be from Spain. The other two participating centres in the country will be La Paz and La Princesa Hospitals in Madrid.
This is part of global trials carried out by Janssen (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary)
The goal of phase 2 of this study is to evaluate the immune responses to different dosages of the vaccine in order to establish its safety levels. The immune response will be assessed after four and six months had passed.
As for Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital, it will host part of the research, where experts will study the response among 40 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55 and another group of over 65 years.
The selection of the Cantabrian hospital as one of the hubs for these important studies is not surprising, as in the words of the Regional Health Minister Miguel Rodríguez this would highlight “the great research work” that has already been done at the Valdecilla Clinical Trials Unit and the nearby IDIVAL research centre.
The abovementioned Clinical Trials Unit was founded in 2013 and is a joint initiative between the hospital and the research centre. In 2015 it received an ISO 9001 quality certification and during its existence, it has conducted nearly 250 clinical trials with experts from 17 different fields.
This type of trials is an obligatory part of the research procedures before a final product is placed on the market. The different stages need to demonstrate the efficacy, quality and safety of the new medicine before receiving authorization from the national medicine authorities and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Source: TheMayor.EU
