Fred Hutch opens COVID-19 Clinical Research Center

SEATTLE — Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Research announced Monday that it has opened its COVID-19 Clinical Research Center.

The center is designed to test novel interventions, such as monoclonal antibodies and antivirals, to treat and prevent COVID-19, officials said.

The facility is located at Fred Hutch’s South Lake Union campus.

It will provide a space for scientists to work with study volunteers, health care providers, research institutes, foundations and the biotech/pharmaceutical industry on phase 1 through 3 clinical trials for COVID-19-positive participants and, in the future, participants with other infectious diseases.

“The ability to safely deliver therapies to people with COVID-19 early in their disease course is critical to limiting spread, reducing hospitalizations and death, and reopening our society,” said Dr. Rachel Bender Ignacio, an associate in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutch and the medical director of the CCRC. “For more than 40 years, Fred Hutch researchers have made fundamental discoveries and breakthroughs relating to viruses and the body’s immune response to cancer, HIV and other infections. Our team of clinical researchers is committed to applying our expertise to determine which therapies are the safest and most effective in treating COVID-19 and saving and improving lives.”

The CCRC opened with two COVID-19 studies.

One is a phase 3 randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of remdesivir treatment of individuals with COVID-19 who are not ill enough to be hospitalized.

The second study is a phase 2/3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial examining REGN-COV2, Regeneron’s investigational double-antibody cocktail, in non-hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Cox Media Group