Novavax trial begins in Canberra, one of four under way in Australia

About 80 Canberrans will take part in the Novavax clinical trial, which is being conducted in the ACT by Paratus Clinical and Ochre Health.

It is one of 18 Australian and 22 United States locations conducting the 1500-person trial.

Twenty-four participants have already received the injection from 49 volunteers.

Ochre Health's Amber Leah, the primary investigator in the Canberra trial, said the Bruce clinic had been fully-booked with potential participants since the first vaccination last Wednesday.

Up to 80 people are required in the ACT and Paratus Clinical chief commercial officer Matt Clacy said more people were needed.

The 12-month study requires participants to get three doses of the vaccination against COVID-19, but Mr Clacy said they could continue life as normal.

"The vaccine itself is a part of the genetic sequence of COVID-19, so there's no risk of infection," he said.

"It's a small part so the body can build up an immune response to that genetic sequence, and in fact that's the important part of being able to respond should you then get infected by COVID-19, your body will recognise it and therefore build immunity to it.

"Everyone leaves the clinic and goes back to work or goes back to their normal day-to-day routine."

The vaccine was trialled in the first stage on 130 people aged 18 to 59 across two Australian locations.

Novavax reported it had been "well-tolerated" and had not led to severe side-effects.

1500 people will be vaccinated in the second stage, half of that cohort will be over 60 and half under 60.

Dr Leah said the second phase was the first time it would be tested on over 60s and extra precautions were in place.

"There will be 250 participants taken on to the study and then there will be some safety data run to make sure they're safe to continue," she said.

"It is always really important the vaccine is tested across all age groups that it may end up being rolled out for."

Ochre Health director of medical services John Hall is among several medical staff who volunteered for the study.

"It's like having the normal flu shot," he said. "Nothing more than a little bit of an ache, otherwise really good."

Dr Hall said he was confident the vaccine was a strong candidate among some 100 contenders being developed globally.

"It looks like it's going to work, the phase one clinical trials were really quite promising," he said.

"For me the worst case scenario is the vaccine doesn't work as well as we would like but I'm confident there's not going to be any adverse side affects."

Dr Hall said he was happy to join the trial and hopefully be part of the solution to the pandemic which has wreaked havoc across the globe.

"This is a community service," he said.

"We absolutely need people to stand up and put themselves forward for this. The only way we're going to find a cure or a vaccine for COVID-19 is if people are willing to engage in clincial trials."

Volunteers are required to pass screening to ensure they are healthy and eligible to participate.

A blood sample is then taken to establish a baseline immune response and the vaccination is given. A second injection is required after three-weeks and a third after six-months.

Dr Leah said participants would be split into five groups that would be given different amounts of vaccine to ascertain the most effective dosage.

READ MORE:

"There is differnt doses of the vaccine they could be getting or they could be getting a placebo ... and they don't know which one they're in and I don't know which group they're in," she said.

Mr Clacy said healthy people aged 18 to 84 could be eligible to take part.

"That doesn't exclude people who have chronic conditions like diabetes for example, as long as you're on a stable course of medication and you haven't had any changes in the last three months," he said.

"There's been a very wide range of age groups that have been in our clinics to date."

The youngest participants are 18 and the oldest in Australia is 83.

The University of Queensland is also working on a vaccine as is Flinders University and Adelaide company Vaxine, and another is being developed by international company Clover Biopharmaceuticals.