Moderna
Changing the world together.
Challenge
In June 2020, Crowley Webb’s patient recruitment division, Praxis, engaged with Moderna on a project that had the potential to change the world: a COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial. Amidst the chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic, we were tasked with creating an expedited campaign to recruit patients for this critically needed research.
Action
Just as you would prepare for receiving any vaccine, it was time for us to roll up our sleeves. As we do with many of our Praxis projects, we started by branding the trial to make it more inviting for potential participants – healthy volunteers who wanted to have a hand in changing the world and ending the pandemic. We wanted to create a connection to “COVID” but also draw meaning from the protection the vaccine could provide, so we landed on the COVE Study.
From here, we created a suite of COVE Study materials not only to recruit volunteers but to guide them and the research staff through study participation. These materials portrayed participants as heroes by depicting the classic post-jab bandage as a badge of honor representing their altruistic contribution to humankind.
It was also important to Moderna that a diverse population was represented as part of the trial subset, so an emphasis was placed on creating materials and a community-based outreach inclusive of all minority groups – especially Black and Latinx populations.
Capabilities
Results
By July 2020, the COVE Study was officially underway and we had played a role in recruiting the more than 30,000 brave volunteers who signed up. This group, representative of the diverse US population and those most at risk for serious infection, took part in proving the investigational mRNA vaccine safe and effective. And by December 2020, the vaccine received Emergency Use Authorization for adults 18 and older, and Moderna was able to begin research on vaccines for younger demographics through the TeenCOVE and KidCOVE studies.
Today, the vaccine researched in the COVE Study has been fully approved by the FDA. And while this might seem like the end of our story, it’s only the beginning. Moderna, now a household name, is using these findings to further research on mRNA technology so that it can one day treat other viruses, autoimmune disorders, cancer, rare diseases, and more.