‘How can I give back?’: Boise man, local company help in COVID-19 vaccine trials
By his estimate, Tom Helmer was probably one of the first Idahoans to be vaccinated against COVID-19 – at least potentially.
Helmer is one of about 1,500 people participating in a vaccine trial by biotechnology company Novavax, which is testing Phase I/II of its vaccine in the Treasure Valley, among other places. Helmer doesn’t know whether he received the vaccine or a placebo on Aug. 25, when he and four others got their injections at Advanced Clinical Research in Meridian.
Helmer said in the following days, he felt a little lethargic, though he can’t be sure if the injection had anything to do with that.
“It could be just psychosomatic or it could be real,” he said in a phone interview.
A bit of fatigue is well worth the potential benefits of the vaccine, Helmer said. Earlier in the summer, Helmer said, he was “doomscrolling” on social media and feeling anxious about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“Part of me has been saying, ‘How can I give back at this time?’” Helmer said. “And I also wanted to find a way not to get sick.”
He started reading about clinical vaccine trials and signed up to participate at clinicaltrials.gov, a National Institutes of Health website that logs drug trials. In late July, he received an email from Advanced Clinical Research inviting him to participate in Phase III of a COVID-19 vaccine trial by AstraZeneca. (That trial was halted in September when two participants experienced “serious neurological illnesses.” It only resumed in United States within the last week.) Later, Helmer was instead asked to participate in the Novavax trial.
“The cool thing is, (in an earlier phase) you’re more likely to get the actual vaccine versus a placebo,” Helmer said. About 80% of Novavax trial participants would get the actual vaccine, according to information Helmer was given on the study.
Helmer said he’ll participate in the trial for about 14 months, during which he’ll receive multiple injections and have his blood analyzed for COVID-19 antibodies.
“It was good to help out,” he said. “I had this internal struggle ... ‘Am I doing this for selfish reasons or for the greater good? And I decided I would do it for both.’”
Helmer won’t know for some time whether he received the placebo or the vaccine. He said four weeks after his first shot, he tested negative for COVID-19 antibodies.
“This could mean nothing or the vaccine doesn’t produce the type of antibodies they are testing for,” he said in an email.
COVID-19 trials have several ties to the Treasure Valley
There are multiple COVID-19 vaccine trials happening in the Treasure Valley. In addition to NovaVax and AstraZeneca trials, Pfizer and BioNTech announced in August that they were looking volunteers to test their own fast-tracked vaccine.
An Idaho company is helping many of those vaccine trials run smoothly and safely. AmericanPharma Technologies, a Boise-based health care tech company, is using its PharmaWatch monitoring system to ensure vaccine serums stay at their optimal temperature while they’re in storage.
“(We’re) using sensors to make sure that the vaccines that are being stored are being monitored in real time for any temperature deviations,” said Nicholas Ioli, chief operating officer for AmericanPharma, in a phone interview. “Now more than ever we want to make sure those (vaccines) are efficacious.”
The company, which has produced drug-monitoring solutions since 2010, is working with local clinics offering COVID-19 vaccines, and Ioli said they’re also working on partnering with health care organizations around the state to prepare for storing approved vaccines when they become available.
“The safety and efficacy of medications should always be a priority,” Ioli said. “With the COVID vaccine, it’s even more important.”
Research and trials for COVID-19 vaccines are moving along quickly. Novavax — the company whose trial Helmer is part of — intends to launch its third phase in the U.S. in November. Pfizer is currently lobbying for emergency approval of its vaccine, which could be distributed early next year.
