Recognizing the urgency of patient recruitment and the challenges it faced, the Sponsor sought patient recruitment support. The Sponsor contracted a central recruitment partner who in turn engaged ClinicalConnection as a recruitment channel to fulfill enrollment goals. Known for its PatientEdge™ database of motivated clinical trial seekers and long track record of rapidly providing high-quality patient referrals to study centers, ClinicalConnection quickly began referring pre-screened individuals to research sites. Within the 8-week recruitment period, 637 adolescents were screened from ClinicalConnection with 252 being eligible and referred to a research site for follow up. Of these, 109 were randomized into the COVID-19 vaccine trial.

The high number of randomizations translated to a randomization rate of over 40%, which was vastly higher than the referrals originating from other recruitment channels. Higher randomization rates reduce the workload for research sites and maximize efficiency and speed as well as ROI.