Department of Microbiology & Immunology Seminar
Speaker: Isaac R. Rodriguez-Chavez, PhD
CEO & Founder, 4Biosolutions Consulting
Title: “COVID-19 Immunotherapies and Decentralized Clinical Trials Enabled by Digital Health Technologies as Evaluation Strategies”
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic is a lethal virus outbreak by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has severely affected human lives and the global economy. As of January 23 of 2023, there have been 664,097,132 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,716,108 deaths, reported to WHO. As of January 17, 2023, a total of 13,131,550,798 of COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally, and 2 million are now administered each day per WHO. 69.3% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 26% of people in low-income countries have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Similar statistics are not readily available for other immunotherapy modalities such as the use of polyclonal convalescent plasma, anti-spike protein monoclonal antibodies, kinase inhibitors, anti-cytokine treatment, anti-complement treatment, and kallikrein–kinin inhibitors. This presentation will discuss background on COVID-19 disease, immunotherapies available, and factors and trends influencing decentralized clinical trials enabled by digital health technologies as clinical evaluation strategies.