As Canadians risk yet another economic shut-down and possible stay-at-home orders, the promise of a COVID-19 cure and vaccine is the only hope for many to regain a sense of normalcy amid the pandemic’s chaos.
Known as the “Tinder for clinical trials,” Canada’s Covid Trials platform is spearheading the nation’s development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
In an exclusive interview with Top Class Actions, Canada’s premier medical and COVID-19 researchers, Drs. Nathaniel Bouganim and Ramy Saleh reveal the latest COVID-19 vaccine updates, their COVID-19 clinical trial experiences and what Canadians can do to help find a vaccine.
“Tinder” For COVID-19 Clinical Trials Has Arrived
The figurative “brain” behind the Covid Trials Canada platform, Dr. Ramy Saleh, MD, MSc, FRCPC, is the founder of Airmed Trials and a practicing Medical Oncologist and researcher at the McGill University Health Center. His innovative online platform was sparked when he began working with COVID-19 patients and their families in the wake of the pandemic.
“When I was in the COVID wards,” he explains, “many patients and families were asking about clinical trials and where to find information.”
However, he points out, finding clear and accurate medical information on medical websites or journals is a painstaking task for the average Canadian. The goal was to “build something Canadian, something easy for patients and their families to see which COVID trials are available in their province.”
Dr. Nathaniel Bouganim, MD, FRCPC, an Assistant Professor in the Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology and Director of the Oncology in-patient teaching unit at the MUHC, is involved with clinical trials and research related to the effects of COVID-19 on cancer patients.
He has received awards from the American Association for Cancer Research and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, among others.
According to Dr. Bouganim, Covid Trials is a strategic tool for Canadians stuck at home with COVID-19 symptoms. “Many patients are sent home with little information about COVID-19 or what they can do,” says Dr. Bouganim. “Covid Trials allows these patients to participate in clinical trials from their homes, without the risk of infecting others.”
Covid Trials Canada is a not-for-profit initiative of Think Research, a Canadian health technology company, and its subsidiary Airmed Trials. According to its website, Covid Trials is a “research hub” that matches eligible Canadian participants with researchers conducting COVID-19 clinical trials.
COVID-19 Clinical Trials and Your Role in Finding the Cure
Dr. Saleh has a trialist background, and is a lead investigator in clinical trial testing for a “Canadian molecule to improve Covid patients’ condition who require hospitalization.” The trial is reportedly active in Quebec and Ontario, and is “slowly moving into the U.S. It should be launched in the U.S. in about a month,” says the trialist.
Proud of this project, Dr. Saleh highlights that this is the first and only Canadian testing of a “molecule to fight against COVID-19 by a Canadian pharmaceutical company.”
Dr. Ramy Saleh makes note that everyone should make an effort to join a COVID-19 trial, whether or not they tested positive for the virus.
“It’s important for everyone. To be able to live free, without fear of contracting Covid and to be able to live without wearing masks, etc. We need either a medication to prevent people from dying of Covid or medication to prevent hospitalization from Covid, as well as a vaccine. And for this we need participants. Trials need participants– like this we get answers.”
“This is true for any disease,” Adds Dr. Nathaniel Bouganim. “Clinical trials are ways for drugs to get approved. This is how we know the benefit of drugs versus placebo.”
According to Dr. Nathaniel Bouganim, the media attention surrounding COVID-19 is positive for science because of all the attention and public awareness. “It’s a disease that’s here for now and we need to conduct these trials quickly to get answers,” he says.
COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: What You Need To Know
The majority of participants involved in the COVID-19 clinical trials are coronavirus patients in hospitals, notes Dr. Bouganim. The physician and clinical trial team are present, and patients “don’t have much to lose,” according to the oncology expert.
However, he points out, “they are not the ideal participants because they have symptoms. A bunch of Covid positive individuals are asymptomatic or don’t suffer serious symptoms, and this is what the online platform [Covid Trials Canada] is trying to match-make, trials that look at these populations.”
Dr. Nathaniel Bouganim explains that this is a hurdle everywhere in the world: “We need real bone fide trials for this [asymptomatic] population. These trials are important because we want to have anti-Covid drugs that prevent people from getting symptoms.”
So, what are the goals of such COVID-19 trials, you may be wondering? Dr. Ramy Saleh notes that the COVID-19 trials conducted in hospitals now have two primary objectives:
- To prevent patients from going into ICU or dying from the virus, and
- To ensure patients recover so they can go home.
“We are worried that COVID patients will flood the health care system because patients are admitted for a few weeks. With COVID-19, it’s not a one or two day hospital stay. So it’s important to be able to have people out quickly,” Dr. Saleh stresses.
COVID-19 Trials Are The Future
Dr. Ramy Saleh’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial platform is not only innovative, but it’s a window into the future of clinical trials.
“This is how trials will be in the future,” says Dr. Ramy Saleh. “It’s a new avenue we are all discovering together.”
Being able to participate in a clinical trial without ever leaving the comfort of home seems to be the future. Covid Trials has another futuristic feature as well: It can find out who tested positive for coronavirus and will contact patients directly.
According to Dr. Bouganim, the future will likely be a “hybrid system,” consisting of portions of the clinical trial at home and other portions taking place in hospital.
“We are only, however, getting hard results,” according to Dr. Nathaniel Bouganim. “This means, we know if people are surviving, but we don’t get people’s blood test results, or other tests done to analyse why some people get certain symptoms while others don’t […] It’s a quick and dirty way to get a trial done.”
COVID-19 Vaccine Coming Soon
When asked about the prospect of having a COVID-19 cure or vaccine in time to prevent further outbreaks throughout Canada, Dr. Bouganim warned that “cure is a big word. I would use it with caution.”
According to the oncology expert, treatments and possible vaccines are well on their way to becoming available on the Canadian market.
“There are a lot of pharmaceutical companies that are in a head-to-head race to develop a Covid vaccine,” he says with optimism. “I would not be surprised if a vaccine comes out at the end of October or early November.”
However, the doctor warns that this does not mean that a COVID-19 vaccine will be ready for all Canadians to use.
Dr. Bouganim also cautions that there is a widespread misconception regarding the COVID-19 vaccine: “People think that if they are vaccinated against Covid, they can’t get the virus. But in fact, vaccines don’t work like that.”
Vaccines have an “efficacy,” he explains. “They may only work on 50% or 70% of the population. It won’t be a perfect solution, but it may slow down transmission and calm things down.”
Dr. Ramy Saleh adds that the only anti-COVID-19 medication that has been studied and showed sturdy efficacy is dexamethasone.
He continues that COVID-19 vaccines are on their way, but we need to be cautious: “Right now they are being tested on 1,000 to 2,000 people. If the vaccines have a bad side effect on 1 person, even 0.1%, it’s quite huge, because if we give the vaccine to 1 billion people, many people may suffer. This is why we should not push the process,” advises Dr. Saleh. “As it is currently being pushed politically, people have to be very cautious.”
COVID-19: Lessons Learned
As the second wave of COVID-19 threatens further nation-wide disruptions, Drs. Bouganim and Saleh remain strikingly optimistic.
“We understand the disease better than the first wave,” explains Dr. Bouganim. According to him, doctors and researchers now have more of a grasp on COVID-19’s spread, its natural history, the complications involved and more.
“We also learned to be a little more patient,” he adds. “We are better prepared to deal with sick patients in hospital.” Dr. Nathaniel Bouganim highlights that one of the key lessons learned from the first COVID-19 wave is to make sure that those who are already compromised, such as those with pre-existing conditions and older populations don’t catch the virus. “And younger people have a part to play to keep compromised populations safe. We all live together and this disease gets shared everywhere.”
There is also a different message between the first wave and second wave, notes Dr. Ramy Saleh. During the first wave the message was, “We are not ready, we don’t have PPE and infrastructure, etc. But during the second wave, the message is more about not overwhelming the health care system at the moment and pushing to get people to participate in trials so that we have answers and a vaccine.”
Would you like to join a COVID-19 trial? Do you have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below!
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