Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Turning Discovery into Health
  • Virtual Tour
  • En Español

Site Menu

  • Home
  • Health Information
    • Health Care Providers & Facilities
    • Health Info Lines
    • HealthCare.gov
    • Science Education Resources
    • NIH Clinical Research Trials and You
    • Talking to Your Doctor

    More »

    Quick Links

    • MedlinePlus Health Info
    • NIH News in Health
    • Wellness Toolkits
  • Grants & Funding
    • Grants Home Page
    • Find Funding
    • Due Dates
    • How to Apply
    • About Grants
    • Policy & Compliance
    • Grants News/Blog
    • Contracts
    • Loan Repayment

    More »

    Quick Links

    • RePORT
    • eRA Commons
    • NIH Common Fund
  • News & Events
    • News Releases
    • Digital Media Kits
    • Media Resources
    • Media Contacts
    • Images and B-roll
    • Events
    • Social Media

    More »

    Quick Links

    • NIH News in Health
    • NIH Research Matters
    • NIH Record
  • Research & Training
    • Medical Research Initiatives
    • Science Highlights
    • Science Education
    • Research in NIH Labs & Clinics
    • Training Opportunities
    • Library Resources
    • Research Resources
    • Clinical Research Resources
    • Safety, Regulation and Guidance

    More »

    Quick Links

    • PubMed
    • Stem Cell Information
    • OppNet
    • NIDB
    • NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
  • Institutes at NIH
    • List of Institutes and Centers
    • NIH Office of the Director
    • Directors of NIH Institutes and Centers
    • NIH Institute and Center Contact Information

    More »

    Quick Links

    • NCI
    • NEI
    • NHLBI
    • NHGRI
    • NIA
    • NIAAA
    • NIAID
    • NIAMS
    • NIBIB
    • NICHD
    • NIDCD
    • NIDCR
    • NIDDK
    • NIDA
    • NIEHS
    • NIGMS
    • NIMH
    • NIMHD
    • NINDS
    • NINR
    • NLM
    • CC
    • CIT
    • CSR
    • FIC
    • NCATS
    • NCCIH
  • About NIH
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Jobs at NIH
    • Visitor Information
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Contact Us

    More »

    Quick Links

    • The NIH Director
    • Take the Virtual Tour
    • NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®
    • Impact of NIH Research
    • Science, Health, and Public Trust

You are here

Home » News & Events » News Releases

News Releases

News Release

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

NIH launches clinical trials network to test COVID-19 vaccines and other prevention tools

Network website features secure method for volunteering for studies.

Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (blue) heavily infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (red), isolated from a patient sample. NIAID

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has established a new clinical trials network that aims to enroll thousands of volunteers in large-scale clinical trials testing a variety of investigational vaccines and monoclonal antibodies intended to protect people from COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network (COVPN) was established by merging four existing NIAID-funded clinical trials networks: the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), based in Seattle; the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), based in Durham, N.C.; the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), based in Atlanta; and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, based in Los Angeles. Those individual networks will continue to perform clinical trials for HIV vaccine and prevention and other infectious diseases in addition to their new COVID roles.

“Establishing a unified clinical trial network is a key element of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, which aims to deliver substantial quantities of a safe, effective vaccine by January 2021,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “Starting this summer, this new network will leverage existing infrastructure and engage communities to secure the thousands of volunteers needed for late-stage clinical trials of promising vaccines.”

“Having a safe and effective medical countermeasure to prevent COVID-19 would enable us to not only save lives but also help end the global pandemic,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “Centralizing our clinical research efforts into a single trials network will expand the resources and expertise needed to efficiently identify safe and effective vaccines and other prevention strategies against COVID-19.”

The network’s vaccine testing will be led by Larry Corey, M.D., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and Kathleen M. Neuzil, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The network’s monoclonal antibody clinical testing efforts will be led by Myron S. Cohen, M.D., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and David S. Stephens, M.D., of Emory University in Atlanta. The HVTN, which is based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, will serve as the COVPN’s operational center.

The COVPN is a functional unit of “Operation Warp Speed,” a partnership led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to invest in and coordinate the development, manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. The network will use a harmonized vaccine protocol developed by the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) public-private partnership. This will enable analyses of correlates of protection across multiple vaccine trials. The network is expected to operate more than 100 clinical trial sites across the United States and internationally.

The network has developed an extensive community engagement framework to reach out to potential research volunteers and explain the specific details involved in participating in a vaccine or monoclonal antibody clinical study.

“Each of the Phase 3 clinical trials that the COVPN will conduct will require thousands of volunteers,” said NIH Director Francis Collins, M.D. “Community engagement, particularly with the communities most vulnerable to COVID-19’s severe outcomes, will be critical to the success of this research endeavor.” 

People also can learn more about the different stages of vaccine research and the new network’s COVID-19 vaccine and monoclonal antibody studies by visiting the COVPN’s website (https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org). The COVPN website features a customized data collection platform, which Oracle (Redwood Shores, CA) built and donated, to securely identify potential trial participants. Interested individuals can sign up for a rolling clinical trial participant registry on the website, which features security-enhanced protections. Clinical study staff will use the registry to contact and screen potential study volunteers.

The first Phase 3 clinical trial that the COVPN is expected to conduct will involve testing the investigational mRNA-1273 vaccine, developed by NIAID scientists and their collaborators at the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That study is expected to begin this summer.

NIAID conducts and supports research — at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwid e— to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

###

Institute/Center

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Contact

NIAID Office of Communications
301-402-1663

Connect with Us

  • Subscribe to news releases
  • RSS Feed

Connect with Us

  • Contact Us
  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • More Social Media from NIH

Footer

  • NIH Home
  • Virtual Tour
  • En Español
  • Visitor Information
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimers
  • Accessibility
  • NIH Website Archives
  • Nondiscrimination Notice
  • Freedom of Information Act
  • No Fear Act
  • HHS Vulnerability Disclosure
  • Office of Inspector General
  • USA.gov

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20892

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Back to Top