POUGHKEEPSIE – Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie is participating in a National Institutes of Health clinical trial designed to identify promising therapeutic treatments against COVID-19.
The ACTIV-5 Big Effect Trial, launched by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, compares approved and investigational medicines in the treatment of hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients to determine which treatments are the most effective. Those will then be moved into larger clinical trials for further review.
Nuvance Health’s Danbury Hospital in Danbury and Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut are joining their sister hospital in Poughkeepsie among more than 40 sites in the country participating in the trial, which will enroll a total of 90 adult volunteers with COVID-19 hospitalized at one of Nuvance’s three facilities.
The trial will compare different monoclonal antibodies in combination with remdesivir in order to determine which treatments have relatively large effects.
Remdesivir is now the standard of care for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made versions of proteins naturally produced by the immune system in response to viruses or other pathogens.
Study participants will be assessed daily while hospitalized. Once discharged, they will have visits both in person and via telephone on days 8, 15, 22 and 29. There will also be a series of COVID-19 tests and lab tests for research purposes throughout the study.
Nuvance Health’s participation is via a subcontract with the Frederick National Laboratory, operated by Leidos Biomedical Research Inc. Funding for this study has been provided under contract.
