HealthPartners starts clinical tests for coronavirus vaccine in Minnesota
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HealthPartners have started clinical trials for a vaccine that could be used to combat the novel coronavirus.
Dr. Zeke McKinney is one of the physicians involved in the testing program at HealthPartners, which is teaming up with Oxford University and a pharmaceutical company in the two-year study.
"We will be working with 1,500 people who have contracted COVID-19 here in Minnesota," said McKinney. "Two-thirds will get the actual vaccine that’s being tested and one-third will receive a placebo."
HealthPartners seeks to enroll Minnesotans in COVID-19 vaccine trial
McKinney said it is a two-year study, but if the testing for a coronavirus vaccine is a success much earlier than the two-year limit, then it would be presented to the federal government for approval.
In this Monday, July 27, 2020 file photo, a nurse prepares a shot as a study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., gets underway in Binghamton, N.Y.[Hans Pennink/Associated Press]
"If say in three months or six months we have tremendous success, we would then look to get FDA approval, but the testing would still go on until the two years were up," said McKinney.
McKinney said the vaccine testing will be done with mostly high-risk patients who’ve contracted COVID-19.