On Jul. 8, 2020, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was named the coordinating center for vaccine clinical trials of the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN). The CoVPN was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. A team headquartered at Fred Hutch lead operations across a network of at least five large-scale efficacy trials with over 100 clinical trial sites in the U.S. and abroad.

Dr. Larry Corey, renowned virologist and past president and director of Fred Hutch, will co-lead the CoVPN’s vaccine testing pipeline with Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at the University of Maryland. Dr. Corey is also the Principal Investigator of the NIAID-funded CoVPN operations center, located at Fred Hutch, and Dr. Jim Kublin is the executive director of the operations program.

The CoVPN combines the infrastructure and expertise of four existing, NIAID-funded clinical trials networks: the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, which is based at Fred Hutch and led by Dr. Corey, the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium.

Harmonizing clinical trial operations through the CoVPN will create efficiencies and consistency in evaluating vaccine candidates, allowing the trials to move at an unprecedented speed while meeting the highest standards for safety. CoVPN will partner with communities that are and have been historically affected by racist systems and policies leading to socioeconomic disadvantages and health inequities, and that are currently facing high risk of infection and death from COVID disease as well as other comorbidities. CoVPN will also partner with communities with a high percentage of older people, such as nursing homes, who are also at higher risk of COVID-19 disease complications. CoVPN’s large-scale vaccine efficacy studies are expected to enroll between 10,000 to 30,000 individuals per trial, at sites in the U.S. and internationally.

The first Phase 3 efficacy trial for a COVID vaccine conducted by the CoVPN is planned to begin enrollment this summer, and four more efficacy trials were expected to open in the coming months.