With almost two years under its belt, the RBDCOV project, dedicated to the development of HIPRA’s BIMERVAX® vaccine against COVID-19 and financed by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme, explores new dissemination channels through the production of its own podcast: ‘RBDCOV Talks'. The aim of this audio format, which has gained popularity in recent years, is to contribute to a greater public awareness of medical and scientific specialisation areas, such as clinical trials of vaccines, among others.

This initiative, which consists of a series of ten podcast episodes with the participation of clinical research teams, medicine professionals and community advocates is part of the communication and dissemination strategy led by Zabala Innovation, which aims to facilitate access to technical knowledge for non-specialist groups. At the same time, RBDCOV Talks' informs the community about the current progress and results of ongoing clinical trials testing the efficacy, tolerability and safety of HIPRA's recombinant BIMERVAX® vaccine.

A ten-episode series to bring the vaccine clinical trial closer to the general public 

The production of this podcast has been made possible thanks to the joint efforts of the consortium members, resulting in a podcast series of ten episodes, each lasting around 10 minutes. The podcast features researchers, scientists, doctors and other health professionals and community advocates from five European countries who have been actively participating in the different phases of the RBDCOV project.

The episodes cover a wide range of interesting topics: from the most basic aspects of clinical research— such as what a vaccine clinical trial is and what it consists of— to more complex topics, such as inclusion criteria and immunological memory. Each podcast episode delves into relevant aspects of clinical vaccine research and provides a comprehensive yet accessible knowledge of these topics. For this purpose, some of the project’s researchers and partners have been interviewed, such as Antonio Barreiro, Lead Researcher of HIPRA Human Health Project, and Pere Soler, head of the Pediatric Infectious Pathology and Immunodeficiency Unit of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and of the Infection and Immunity in the Pediatric Patient group of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), together with experts Pablo Rojo, Helena Belinchón, Montse Barceló, Juanfran Cabrera, Arda Karapinar, Julia García-Prado, Mete Tan, Antoni Castro and Laura Sesma.

The complete ‘RBDCOV Talks' series will be available in English from November 29, 2023, on three major podcast distribution platforms - Spotify, Ivoox and Apple Podcasts.

The clinical trial with adolescents

On October 11, the RBDCOV project held its annual consortium meeting, during which the data and conclusions of the clinical trial with adults with immunocompromising conditions were presented. The results demonstrated the efficacy of the vaccine in this population group against new variants of COVID-19. Currently, the RBDCOV project has progressed to implementing its next set of trials in the younger population, and is recruiting adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age to participate in the clinical trial for this age range.