There is a race among the healthcare facilities around the world to be the first research institution to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 that actually works. There are hundreds of research facilities globally with this objective. The large pharmaceutical companies have more resources and will be able to develop a vaccine more quickly. AstraZeneca, one of the largest pharmaceutical company’s in the world, has delivered a possible vaccine at a partner research laboratory in Arkansas, a Mid-Western state in the United States.
According to KTBS3, the Applied Research Center of Arkansas is an independently owned facility that has a contract with AstraZeneca to conduct phase-3 clinical trials.
“There are people that are weaker, they have immune problems or whatever and if they get it that seems to be what is carrying them onto the next life so I want to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” explained Laurie Tillery, a trial participant who has not tested positive for COVID-19.
“I want to do my part to help get rid of this and if this helps then I’m going to do it,” Tillery added.
Donna Wright, the nurse practitioner who owns the research facility stated: “This is a worldwide issue and so that’s why you have different drug companies doing studies because it’s going to take everybody to get vaccinations out to the whole world.”
These statements exemplify the magnitude of the coronavirus being a global pandemic. It seems like the research farcicalities in the United States are further along the process of clinical trials-more so than those in other territories-however, once a usable and effective vaccine is developed it is going to take a large infrastructure to distribute the vaccine to health facilities throughout the world.
This particular vaccine is similar to the others that are being created; it creates antibodies that will destroy the coronavirus once they interact with each other in the body.
In Arkansas there is a shortage of participants. A participant must meet the following criteria: they have to be aged 18 or older, be in good health, and they cannot have tested positive for COVID-19. Since the start of the month, there has been 100 participants from the Little Rock area. They are looking for 1500 more participants within the state.
In order to reach such a high number of participants, it is important for the public health workers to talk to citizens and create public service announcements that explain how their temporary participation in this phase-3 clinical trial can ultimately save hundreds of thousands of lives in the U.S. and millions globally.
After the vaccine passes phase-3, there is only one more phase to pass before the vaccine can be made available for distribution at pharmacies as either a shot or a product that can be purchased over the counter or out on the sales floor.
It would be a tremendous victory for AstraZeneca and the healthcare community if they can get this vaccine prepared before the end of 2020. However, for this particular vaccine, it may take a while longer because they will need to convince the citizens that the clinical trial process is safe and that they will not experience any side effects during their participation.