Study to Assess VPM1002 in Reducing Healthcare Professionals' Absenteeism in COVID-19 Pandemic

Overview

The aim of this study is to investigate whether vaccination of healthcare professionals with VPM1002 could reduce the number of days absent from work due to respiratory disease (with or without documented SARS-CoV-2 infection). VPM1002 is a vaccine that is a further development of the old Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, which has been used successfully as a vaccine against tuberculosis for about 100 years, especially in developing countries. VPM1002 has been shown in various clinical studies to be significantly safer than the BCG vaccine. VPM1002 strengthens the body's immune defence and vaccination with BCG reduces the frequency of respiratory diseases. It is therefore assumed that a VPM1002 vaccination could also provide (partial) protection against COVID-19 disease caused by the new corona virus "SARS-CoV 2". A total of 1200 health care professionals (doctors, nurses and paramedical staff) with high expected exposure to SARSCoV-2 infected patients will receive a single dose of either VPM1002 or Placebo. All subjects will be requested to enter data regarding absenteeism, adverse events / serious adverse events, hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions into an online questionnaire.

Based on the evidence that BCG vaccine 1. can potentiate immune responses to other vaccines through induction of trained innate immunity and heterologous adaptive immunity and 2. can reduce the incidence of respiratory infections, exert antiviral effects in experimental models, and reduce viremia in an experimental human model of viral infection, it is hypothesized that BCG vaccination may induce (partial) protection against the susceptibility to and/or severity of SARS- CoV-2 infection. VPM1002 is being developed with the aim to replace BCG by a vaccine that has a better safety profile and superior efficacy. Evidence from pre-clinical and clinical studies demonstrate that VPM1002 is safer and is more immunogenic than the existing BCG vaccine. It is therefore anticipated that VPM1002 will also perform better in reducing the severity of the symptoms of an infection with the SARS CoV-2 than the BCG vaccine. Further, manufacturing of VPM1002 using state-of-the-art production methods will help hasten the production of millions of doses in a very short time and thus would be beneficial in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic situation. The current trial will assess the efficacy and safety of VPM1002 to reduce health care professionals ' absenteeism in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic by modulating the immune system. A total of 1200 health care professionals (doctors, nurses and paramedical staff) with high expected exposure to SARSCoV-2 infected patients (e.g. those employed in emergency departments, intensive care unit, infectious disease ward, COVID-19 isolation wards, respiratory wards, etc.) will be enrolled, across hospitals in Germany. Informed consent will be obtained from the subjects willing to take part in the trial. This will be followed by assessment of the eligibility criteria. Subjects who fulfil the inclusion/exclusion criteria will be centrally randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive a single dose of either VPM1002 or Placebo. All subjects will be requested to sign into a web-based tool designed for this trial. All subjects will be followed-up entirely remotely. The web-based questionnaires will be designed to collect data regarding absenteeism, adverse events / serious adverse events, hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and other secondary endpoints. The investigators will review the outcome and safety data.