DETROIT – Another coronavirus vaccine trial will be starting up in Michigan.
Johnson & Johnson plans to test its vaccine in 60,000 volunteers. One of the testing sites will be right here in Detroit at Henry Ford Hospital.
Johnson & Johnson is announcing plans to launch its phase three vaccine trial next month at nearly 180 locations in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil.
It is expected to be the largest test conducted as part of a coronavirus vaccine.
The participants will be at least 18-years-old and would either receive the vaccine or a placebo.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is based on a method developed a decade ago that uses a modified common cold virus to carry proteins from the coronavirus into the body in hopes of triggering a sufficient immune response.
The same method was used to make an experimental Ebola vaccine in 2019. Henry Ford Hospital is also participating in Moderna vaccine trials.
Local volunteers already started receiving the first doses of that vaccine earlier this month.
Read more: Moderna launches phase 3 vaccine trial at 89 sites across the country
Diversity is a key reason Henry Ford Hospital was selected.
“It is a priority of Henry Ford Health System to recruit volunteers that accurately represent our communities that have so deeply impacted by COVID-19,” added Adnan Munkarah, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer of Henry Ford Health System. “We are encouraged by Johnson & Johnson’s expressed intent ‘to enroll a robust number of participants who are representative of those populations affected by COVID-19.’ We expect to begin recruiting of volunteers within the next few weeks and will make an announcement at that time.”
The Johnson & Johnson trial is expected to start recruiting volunteers in late September. Meanwhile, the Moderna trial is still accepting applications.
“Henry Ford Health System is excited to have been selected as a Phase 3 study location for Johnson and Johnson’s investigative coronavirus vaccine, which we believe will begin in late September. Along with Moderna’s mRNA vaccine candidate, this is the second major pivotal COVID-19 trial for which Henry Ford has been selected as a late-stage study location,” said Steven Kalkanis, MD, SVP, Chief Academic Officer and CEO of Henry Ford Medical Group.