More than 800 people in the UK will take part in the world’s first trial of mixing the two major kinds of COVID-19 vaccine in a £7 million study, it was announced today.
Some participants in in the study will receive one dose of an mRNA vaccine and one dose of an adenoviral vaccine.
Volunteers will be monitored for 13 months and undergo detailed immunological studies at one of eight sites around the country.
The project was announced after the UK announced that the first ten million people have received vaccines. Nearly half a million people have received a second dose.
Recent clinical results have suggested that vaccines of both types are showing unexpected levels of efficacy, even as the virus proves itself capable of rapid mutation – and the researchers will want to see whether combining two kinds of vaccine might help avoid vaccine resistance.
Researcher Professor Matthew Snape, of Oxford University, said: “This is a tremendously exciting study that will provide information vital to the roll out of vaccines in the UK and globally. We call on those aged 50 years and above who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine to visit our website to find out more about the study and see if there is a study site near them.
“If we do show that these vaccines can be used interchangeably in the same schedule this will greatly increase the flexibility of vaccine delivery and could provide clues as to how to increase the breadth of protection against new virus strains.”
Deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said: “Given the inevitable challenges of immunising large numbers of the population against COVID-19 and potential global supply constraints, there are definite advantages to having data that could support a more flexible immunisation programme, if needed and if approved by the medicines regulator.
“It is also even possible that by combining vaccines, the immune response could be enhanced giving even higher antibody levels that last longer; unless this is evaluated in a clinical trial we just won’t know.
“This study will give us greater insight into how we can use vaccines to stay on top of this nasty disease.”
Leave a Reply