In the News
COVID-19 vaccine clinical studies are happening across the country for our youngest citizens, one trial is happening here in the metro area.
While Pfizer has FDA emergency use authorization to vaccinate children 12 years and older, Clinical Research Partners in Henrico is looking at how well the Moderna vaccine will protect kids as young as six months old.
LINK: COVID 19 Treatment
There's a new, one-of-a-kind facility in Richmond that's designed to fight COVID-19, and take some of the burden off hospitals.
TestHere.com, VaccineHere.com, Clinical Research Partners and Infusion Solutions all partnered together to open a COVID-19 clinic inside Clinical Research Partners' Forest Drive location.
"It's a one-stop shop, basically. A COVID epicenter," explained Mike Damon, owner of TestHere.com and VaccineHere.com.
The facility offers three different kinds of COVID-19 tests, all three approved vaccines and monoclonal antibodies to treat patients who test positive for the virus.
LINK: COVID 19 Vaccine Study
Virginia’s first and only site to offer the Moderna vaccine trial for kids is set to begin in a few weeks. Clinical Research Partners on Forest Avenue is asking for 500 children to participate in the study beginning April 1.
Children ages 6 months to 12 years old will be eligible to receive the vaccine during the trial.
Participants will be compensated.
Dr. Richard Bennett, primary investigator of clinical research, said the trial will test the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine in children.
LINK: COVID-19 Treatment
Clinical Research Partners enrolled 1,800 people in vaccine trails, making their body of subjects the largest in the world. (The company also offers COVID-19 testing and treatment options for those who test positive for the virus.)
“The thing that really stands out is just how enthusiastic the volunteers were,” Dr. Call said. “They would literally say we are here to save the world. That’s what we were working to do. There were no vaccines available when it started. We were seeing 60 people a day. They’d come back two weeks later, and they kept coming back.”
When Annette Bennett was 20, she started nursing school and quickly discovered it wasn’t her cup of tea.
But when a family friend who was director of clinical research at VCU offered to train her in clinical research, she jumped at the chance. “Back in the day, you couldn’t get a degree in it, unlike now,” Bennett says.
By the time she was 28, she’d partnered with Dr. Robert Call to open Clinical Research Partners, the largest clinical trial company in Virginia. As co-founder and CEO, she handles the day-to-day operations of the clinic. When the pandemic hit, Bennett and the company went into overdrive. “We had to staff up immediately, going from 20 employees to 100 practically overnight,” Bennett says.
The enlarged staff kept busy performing COVID treatment studies - overseeing the study for AstraZeneca, the vaccine being used in Europe – as well as oral treatment trials and antibody trials. “It was satisfying because we were helping prevent COVID, but also working on treatment options,” she says. “I’m finally learning not to work six days a week, but we’ve been in go mode.”
Just last year, Bennett founded Infusion Solutions, providing patients with private infusion suites for IV therapy. An entire COVID unit, the only stand-alone outpatient unit in Virginia, had to be built out and new protocols put in place. “If you gowned up for the COVID unit, you couldn’t just go up and see the regular patients,” she explains. “We’ve provided treatment for over 2,000 COVID patients.”
Currently, Clinical Research partners is working on vaccine trials that address COVID and the flu. “We need to provide education for patients so they understand that this will be treated like the flu, just a once or twice a year vaccine you get,” Bennett says. “I don’t see challenges, I think, how can we solve this?”
LINK: CEO ANNETTE Wins First RVA Power Women Award
At 28 years old, Annette co-founded Clinical Research Partners, the largest clinical trial company in Virginia managing between 70-85 clinical trials annually, most notably COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. In 2019, she opened Infusion Solutions as the first independent infusion center in Central Virginia. In addition, Infusion Solutions opened the largest outpatient coronavirus treatment center since the start of the pandemic in 2020, saving thousands of lives in Central Virginia and beyond.
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