Pharm-Olam, a global mid-sized CRO, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense to build capability at military treatment facilities in order to support Phase III clinical trials of one or more lead COVID-19 vaccine candidates being developed under Operation Warp Speed. The CRO will provide project management, contract management, and clinical trial site support to participating military treatment facility investigative sites. Pharm-Olam will be partnering with The Geneva Foundation, which is dedicated to serving military medical researchers with the on-site support needed to run clinical trials.

“Pharm-Olam is pleased to have been selected for this important project and look forward to working with DOD, Geneva, and other involved parties supporting the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines. It has always been our mission to help create a healthier world and joining the fight against COVID-19 is an important part of that effort,” said Jason Ezzelle, the CRO’s chief commercial and government contracts officer. “Our team has supported more than 50% of the new chemical entity antibiotics approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2013, and we are excited to leverage that collective expertise to reinforce the OWS endeavor.”

The CRO has worked with and augmented the efforts of a variety of government entities, including divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA); the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as the DOD. Pharm-Olam also holds memberships in the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium and has a strong history of drug development related to medical countermeasures.