Inserm is recruiting 25,000 participants to test vaccines against Covid-19.
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SEBASTIEN SALOM GOMIS / SIPA
Inserm is launching a platform this Thursday to recruit 25,000 volunteers to test Covid vaccines.
All adults can volunteer, with no age limit.
The objective of these clinical trials, which will also include elderly participants, is to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of one or more vaccines with a view to bringing them to the market.
Are you not afraid of needles?
Are you in a hurry for an anti-Covid vaccine to finally be available on the market and are not against the idea of helping research?
What if you “volunteer to test Covid vaccines”?
Inserm is launching this Thursday an unprecedented call to recruit 25,000 French volunteers and is opening the Covireivac platform, a site on which those who wish to volunteer can find all the necessary information and a form to register.
Led by Inserm, Covireivac brings together 24 clinical investigation centers within CHUs throughout France, so that the vaccine is tested throughout the country, particularly in areas where it is actively circulating.
The goal is to be ready to test one or more of the many vaccine candidates developed around the world in the coming weeks.
Who can volunteer?
“Anyone over 18 can volunteer, with no age limit,” says Odile Launay, professor of infectious and tropical diseases at the University of Paris and coordinator of Covireivac.
These trials are intended to recruit several thousand participants, the objective being to demonstrate the efficacy, but also the safety and harmlessness of these vaccines, it is extremely important ”.
Volunteers who have already contracted Covid-19 will also be included in these trials.
On the site "we detail as much as possible what comes from being a volunteer in a clinical trial, what it is, the potential constraints, what a vaccine and a clinical trial are used for, to answer all the questions what volunteers might ask, and a toll-free number is also available, ”adds Professor Launay.
Why is it important to also recruit older volunteers?
When volunteers of all ages have been recruited and the trials start, “we can then launch phase 2 academic trials to assess the immune response that these vaccines can induce in older populations, who frequently respond less well. to vaccination and to compare this immune response to younger subjects, ”explains Prof. Odile Launay.
Usually, "we rather include young volunteers in clinical trials, and to date, very few vaccine candidates have been interested in older subjects," indicates Professor Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, head of the infectious diseases department at the hospital. Henri-Mondor de Créteil.
However, it is precisely they who will be vaccinated as a priority when one or more vaccines are available ”.
Because in fact, "Covid-19 is a particularly serious pathology in the elderly, since the over 65s represent nearly 80% of deaths," recalls Professor Olivier Hanon, head of the geriatrics department at Broca Hospital (AP-HP) and president of Gérontopôle Ile-de-France.
Hence the importance of having a vaccine that is evaluated in this population, since we know that the immune response to a vaccine can be different in young and old people.
We therefore absolutely need to have specific data in the elderly population ”.
Is compensation provided for volunteers?
French law prohibits the remuneration of participants in clinical trials.
Volunteers to test anti-Covid vaccine candidates will simply be compensated, "for the time they devote to us," says Odile Launay.
It is very framed by the legislation, and the compensation will be of a low amount ”.
The start of these trials is scheduled for late 2020 or early 2021. The first results should be obtained within six months of the launch of clinical trials.
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