Nottingham led Covid vaccine study expanded to include two more jabs
Researchers will now work with Moderna and Novavax jabs
A seven-million-pound, UK wide covid vaccine study being led by Nottingham and Oxford Uni scientists is being expanded to include the Moderna and Novavax jabs.
Researchers had been investigating alternating the Oxford AstraZeneca and Pfizer jabs between doses.
As one of the trial sites, experts from the University of Nottingham are looking to recruit 100 participants, aged 50 years and over, who have already received their first Covid-19 vaccination, to receive their second vaccine at the Cripps Health Centre on University Park in Nottingham on either the 26 or 27 April.
To be eligible locally, people must have received their first Covid-19 vaccine between the 1 February and the 1 March (if they attend on the 26 April), or the 2 February and the 2 March (if they attend on the 27 April). To be eligible, people must have received this.
The study is working across eight sites in the UK with researchers studying the immune system responses to different combinations of vaccines.
If the study shows promising results, regulators would formally asses the safety and efficacy of any new vaccination regimen before it would be rolled out to patients.
Professor David Turner from the University of Nottingham, and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Microbiology at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and Principle Investigator on the study said: “This is an important next step in studying the effects of alternating different vaccines in patients. With new vaccines continuing to be approved all the time, if we show the immune response to mixed vaccine schedules is as effective as with the two doses of the same vaccine, then this could lead to more people being able to have their complete vaccination course more quickly. It will also reduce the risk of supply issues with each vaccination.”
Matthew Snape, Associate Professor in Paediatrics and Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, and Chief Investigator on the trial said: “The focus of both this and the original COM-COV study is to explore whether the multiple Covid-19 vaccines that are available can be used more flexibly, with different vaccines being used for the first and second dose.
“If we can show that these mixed schedules generate an immune response that is as good as the standard schedules, and without a significant increase in the vaccine reactions, this will potentially allow more people to complete their Covid-19 immunisation course more rapidly. We saw a fantastic response to the public from the original COM-COV study, with 830 participants recruited over eight sites in a two-week period in February. We look forward to working with this network and several new sites for the COM-COV2 study.”