Race for a COVID-19 vaccine: Experts to discuss progress during free webinar

Join us for a live MJH Life SciencesTM COVID-19 Coalition webinar event, “Race for a Vaccine: The Latest Updates in COVID-19 Prevention,” to hear straight from the experts regarding the newest developments and clinical data on all things COVID-19 prevention, from vaccines to potential prophylaxis treatments.

The program is set for 6pm Eastern / 3pm Pacific on October 27.

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Our panel features Larry Corey, MD, who heads the operations center for the COVID-19 Prevention Network, the national collaboration started by Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to manage the multiple large-scale clinical trials of vaccine candidates; in addition to Myron S. Cohen, MD, who is leading the monoclonal antibody arm of the COVID-19 Prevention Network.

As investigators worldwide race to develop a safe and effective vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), other teams are working to explore additional means of prevention against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Phase 3 data from vaccine clinical trials are expected shortly, and public health officials are hard at work drafting plans for mass delivery and distribution once a vaccine candidate has cleared US Food and Drug Administration approval.

Meanwhile, antibody-based options for prophylaxis are also in development, including monoclonal antibodies.

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Speakers:

Moderator & Coalition Member: Margaret Liu, MD
CEO, PAX Therapeutics
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Liu is a world-renowned expert in the fields of vaccines, immunotherapy, gene therapy, and global health. Dr. Liu obtained an MD from Harvard Medical School and completed her clinical and research training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and MIT. She has pioneered two important new technologies for vaccines and for treating cancer for which she has received numerous awards internationally and two honorary doctorates including an MD honoris causa, was given by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, where she had been previously invited to lecture by the Nobel committee. She is known as “The Mother of DNA Vaccines;” DNA vaccines are one of the approaches being used for a potential COVID-19 vaccine. She has led and advised multiple efforts to develop vaccines for global health as well as gene-based approaches for delivery of therapeutic proteins and is a member of the WHO drafting group for guidelines for DNA and mRNA vaccines.
Dr. Liu is CEO of PAX Therapeutics, consults for companies, investment firms, universities, and scientific non-governmental and governmental organizations, is a Foreign Adjunct Professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and an Adjunct Full Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and is the Chairman of the Board and President Emeritus of the International Society for Vaccines. She was the Senior Advisor in Vaccinology at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Executive Vice-Chair of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), an independent international organization established by the UN with signatory countries, in Seoul, Korea. She has held various executive and board positions at pharma and biotech companies (Merck, Chiron, Sangamo, Transgene) and is currently a Director at Ipsen and Adjuvance Technologies.

Panelist: Lawrence Corey, MD
Past President and Director
Professor, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division
Principal Investigator, HIV Vaccine Trials Network
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Professor, Medicine and Laboratory Medicine
University of Washington

Dr. Larry Corey is an internationally renowned expert in virology, immunology and vaccine development, and the former president and director of Fred Hutch. His research focuses on herpes viruses, HIV and other viral infections, particularly those associated with cancer. He is principal investigator of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, which conducts studies of HIV vaccines in over 30 cities on five continents. Under his leadership, HVTN has become the model for global, collaborative research. In the early 1980s, working at Burroughs-Wellcome with future Nobel laureate Dr. Gertrude Elion, he developed acyclovir as the first effective therapy for genital herpes. As director of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, he led the organization that proved combination antiretroviral treatments could control HIV. The team later demonstrated that these drugs could reduce transmission of HIV from mothers to their infants. He also showed that HIV-1 replicates in blood early in disease, emphasizing the importance of early therapy. Dr. Corey’s group studies how immune cells control HSV. Their goal is to make a vaccine that will reduce reactivation of that virus.

Panelist: Myron S. Cohen, MD
Yeargan-Bate Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dr. Cohen is the Yeargan-Bate Eminent Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology and Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. He serves as the associate vice chancellor for global health at the university, and director for the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases (IGHID). Dr. Cohen received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Rush Medical College in 2000, the lifetime achievement award from the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association and the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest honor in the University of North Carolina System. In 2013, Dr. Cohen received the Smadel Award from the Infectious Disease Society in recognition of his work in public health and the Award for Science from the State of North Carolina, its highest civilian honor. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Disease Society of America, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians. Dr. Cohen serves as the co-principal investigator of the NIH HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN). Dr. Cohen has focused on the transmission and prevention of transmission of HIV. Dr. Cohen is the architect and Principal Investigator of the multinational HPTN 052 trial, which demonstrated that antiretroviral treatment of people with HIV infection, prevents the sexual transmission of the virus. Science Magazine recognized this work as the “Breakthrough of the Year” in 2011. Most recently, Dr. Cohen has played an active role in development of the COVID-19 prevention activities. He serves on the NIH ACTIV Committee, a public-private partnership to organize COVID-19 research. He is a member of the Executive Committee of newly formed NIAID COVID Prevention Network (CoVPN). In this capacity, Dr. Cohen his leading research on the use of monoclonal antibodies for the prevention and early treatment of COVID-19.

About the MJH Life Sciences COVID-19 Coalition

Springing from MJH’s mission to improve quality of life through healthcare communications, education, and research, the MJH Life Sciences™ COVID-19 Coalition was formed to help keep healthcare professionals up-to-date and informed on the science and latest learnings on COVID-19. Leveraging our relationships with top thought leaders across a variety of key specialties, the Coalition generates the most accurate, up-to-the-minute information on the pandemic’s ever-evolving impact on healthcare professionals and the patients they treat.Join us for bi-weekly webinars with discussion, viewpoints, and audience Q&A, and an array of insight pieces on key COVID-related topics.