Care Access Enters into Strategic Partnership with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Enhance Nation’s Pandemic Preparedness

BOSTON – (BUSINESS WIRE) — Care Access, a global health research company helping to improve access to research that leads to new cures and treatments for diseases, is proud to announce the award of a multimillion-dollar agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

As part of BARDA’s Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe) Decentralized Clinical Operations for Healthcare Research (D-COHRe) program, this partnership will help support Care Access’s already-significant decentralized clinical research infrastructure. The award will help ensure that during public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States can rapidly validate and implement novel technologies, approaches, and medical countermeasures, such as treatments and vaccines, for potential mass population threats.

Care Access’s core mission is to expand patient access to innovative treatments and clinical trials, and the company has significant and proven expertise in conducting decentralized clinical trials on a national scale. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, Care Access successfully enrolled over 1,000 participants in clinical trials from long-term care facilities. These facilities were one example of a setting outside the hospital that greatly needed investigational and emerging therapies to treat COVID-19. This experience reinforces Care Access’s belief in the importance of conducting clinical studies in remote and disparate locations around the country with more meaningful and trusting relationships with local community leaders and organizations.

“We are honored to be partnering with HHS and BARDA,” said Ahmad Namvargolian, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Care Access. “This strategic partnership represents a co-investment in the health and well-being of communities that have historically faced barriers to health research. We seek to enhance our decentralized capabilities and better serve harder-to-reach communities, ensuring equitable access to future life-saving immunizations and treatments during public health emergencies.”

Care Access will use the award funds to build on its existing partner network in three ways:

1. Trial Access Partners: Care Access will expand the ability to reach patients around the country by aiming to create a nationally representative network of up to 150 community-based clinicians in 30 geographic areas;
2. Community Partners: Care Access will also expand the ability to reach patients in under-served communities by establishing partnerships with a community organization in each of the 30 geographic areas; and
3. National Long-Term Care Facility Partner: Care Access will improve health research access for the aging U.S. population by adding one or more partnerships with large, nationwide long-term care or senior living providers to expand patient reach.

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; Division of Research, Innovation and Ventures (“DRIVe”), under Agreement number: 75A50124C000XX.

Contact
Joseph Oh - media@careaccess.com