Clinical Research Forum Presents Moderna and Pfizer With Award for Extraordinary Impact on Health

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Dr. William Gruber, Senior Vice President of Clinical Research and Development from Pfizer (Photo: Business Wire).

The CR Forum presented the first ever Award for Extraordinary Impact on Health, honoring exceptional clinical and translational research that benefits all peoples and nations. CR Forum presented this special honor for the scientific achievements of those at Moderna and Pfizer for the development of the individual vaccines against COVID-19. The rapid development of these vaccines shows what clinical and translational research can accomplish at its best. The researchers of both vaccines, along with the countless others who supported the effort, are to be commended, heralded and congratulated. This achievement is a demonstration of the research continuum from basic science, through translation into clinical research, to safe and effective vaccines to protect human health.

Dr. William Gruber, Senior Vice President of Clinical Research and Development from Pfizer, and Dr. Brett Leav, Vice President of Clinical Development, Public Health Vaccines, from Moderna accepted the awards on behalf of their research teams.

“At the end of 2020, we received a much-needed sense of hope that our pursuit and relentless effort to study a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 disease was successful. The urgency of COVID-19 forced us to think differently and challenge traditional vaccine research and development,” said Dr. Gruber of Pfizer. “This outcome of our studies was truly a watershed moment for the overall impact on science, clinical research and those urgently waiting for an answer of how we may put an end to this pandemic.”

Dr. Leav added, “We are grateful to be part of the clinical research community as we all continue to work tirelessly to bring vaccines to the world.”

“There is perhaps no better time than during this terrifying pandemic to highlight the importance of clinical research. Unlike previous generational disasters, for which armies, relief efforts, and policy changes were needed, for this generational catastrophe, the answer could only come from clinical research. And these vaccines, and the Top 10 awardees, exemplify success in this,” said Dr. Harry Selker, Chair of the Clinical Research Forum and Dean, Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Tufts University.

The Clinical Research Forum also presented its annual recognition of the top 10 outstanding research accomplishments in the United States from the previous year, chosen through nominations from the scientific community. The Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards honor groundbreaking clinical and translational research advances that benefit the health and welfare of all Americans. The selected studies reflect the innovative and influential work conducted by scientists at research institutions and hospitals across the United States and partner institutions around the world.

The Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards Finalists are:

• Anti-Selig-8 Antibody for Eosinophilic Gastritis and Duodenitis - Evan Dellon, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Evaluation of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 humoral immune response in a cohort of COVID-19 convalescent individuals - Christian Gaebler, MD, Instructor in Clinical Investigation, Rockefeller University
• Genome-wide cell-free DNA mutational integration enables ultra-sensitive cancer monitoring - Dan Landau, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine
• Integrating Global Health with the Microbiome - Jeffrey Gordon, MD, Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor, Washington University
• ISCHEMIA Trial - David Maron, MD, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine; Judith Hochman, MD, Professor & Associate Director of Cardiology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
• Kisspeptin in the Evaluation of Delayed Puberty - Stephanie Seminara, MD, Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital; Yee-Ming Chan, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital; Margaret Lippincott, MD, Instructor in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Remdesivir in COVID-19 – John Beigel, MD, Associate Director for Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, NIH
• Ruxolitinib for treatment of vitiligo - David Rosmarin, MD, Assistant Professor of Dermatology, Tufts Medical Center
• Selumetinib in Children with Inoperable Plexiform Neurofibromas - Brigitte Widemann, MD, Deputy Director, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute
• The CENTAUR Trial for ALS - Sabrina Paganoni, MD, Co-Director Neurological Clinical Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital

Since 1996, the Clinical Research Forum has enabled the sharing of best practices in clinical research, informed meaningful policy dialogues and increasingly played a national advocacy role in support of clinical research. For more information on this year’s recipients, visit https://www.clinicalresearchforum.org/page/2021Top10Finalists.

About Clinical Research (CF) Forum

The mission of the Clinical Research (CF) Forum is to provide leadership to the national and clinical translational research enterprise and promote understanding and support for clinical research and its impact on health and healthcare. For more information, visit www.clinicalresearchforum.org.

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