Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine Aided by Cedarville Pharmacy Grad

CEDARVILLE, Ohio, Jan. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Less than a year after graduating from the Cedarville University School of Pharmacy, Dr. Kofi Amoah joined the Pfizer team developing a vaccine to fight COVID-19.

It's been a whirlwind year and a half for Amoah, who graduated in May 2019. After completing an internship at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, he joined Pfizer in August 2019. When the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping the United States in March 2020, he joined the team tasked with creating a vaccine.

"It was a huge responsibility, but it wasn't scary," said Amoah. "I learned at Cedarville how to collaborate with a team of people from different types of backgrounds. I knew from my education how to seek out information and how to learn from others in a collaborative setting. I had those opportunities at Cedarville."

Amoah serves as a medical outcome specialist at Pfizer, serving as a go-between for three different Pfizer clinical sites. He was responsible for collecting and collating data on side effects of the vaccine ranging from serious to mild, passed along questions from one test site to another and ensured that Pfizer senior researchers were following proper protocols when recruiting test subjects. He continues to work with Pfizer on testing.

His new business, Sterling Rapid Response, has been approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a vaccine provider for 500,000 patients. This allows Sterling to set up a mobile clinic and collaborate with Hamilton County Public Health and the Springdale (OH) Health Department to help administer and distribute the vaccine.

Amoah has reached out to the Cedarville school of pharmacy for students, interns and professors to help administer the vaccine.

"I'm able to hire pharmacists, pharmacist interns, pharmacy technicians, nurses and doctors to work with public health departments, hospitals and the community to get the vaccine out," he said.

For instance, Amoah explained, the public health department will schedule patients, but his business will supply the labor for administering the vaccine.

"I am encouraged by the innovative mindset Kofi and others have portrayed since graduating," said Dr. Thad Franz, assistant professor pharmacy practice. It is what our profession needs as we continue to face the pandemic and care well for the patients we love."

Cedarville University is an accredited, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,550 students in more than 150 areas of study. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.  

SOURCE Cedarville University