Southampton scientists lead clinical trial for Covid vaccine booster jab
A world-first clinical trial into covid vaccine booster jabs has been launched in the UK today.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that thousands of volunteers will receive a booster COVID-19 vaccine.
The £19.3 million trial will trial seven vaccines, led by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, will look at the impact of a third dose on patients’ immune responses and to see which jabs could be used in any forthcoming autumn vaccination programme.
Some 2,886 people aged 30 and older are being recruited at 18 NHS sites from London to Glasgow, with the first booster jabs administered in early June.
Where will the booster vaccine trials take place?
The study will take place at 18 sites across the UK - Southampton, London (3 sites – University College Hospital, Guys and St Thomas Hospital and Northwick Park Harrow), Leicester, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Wrexham (Wales), Bradford, Oxford, Glasgow, Leeds, Cambridge, Birmingham, Brighton, Stockport, Liverpool and Exeter
Scientists want people who received their first dose of either Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca in December or January to sign up, and hope people aged 75 and over will also come forward.
You can sign up for the trials here.
The initial findings, expected in September, will help inform decisions by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on plans for a booster programme from autumn this year, ensuring the country’s most vulnerable are given the strongest possible protection over the winter period.
Vaccines being trialled include Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Novavax, Valneva, Janssen and Curevac.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock said:
“The UK vaccination programme has been a phenomenal national effort, with seven in 10 UK adults now having had their first COVID-19 jab. It is vital that we continue to support the world-renowned British research sector that has contributed to its success.
“We will do everything we can to future-proof this country from pandemics and other threats to our health security, and the data from this world-first clinical trial will help shape the plans for our booster programme later this year.
“I urge everyone who has had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and is eligible, to sign up for this study and play a part in protecting the most vulnerable people in this country and around the world for months and years to come.”
Chief Investigator and Director of NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility Professor Saul Faust said:
“This trial will give the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation the important data to inform their recommendations of how to protect the population against any future wave.
“It is fantastic that so many people across the country have taken part in vaccine trials up to now so that we can be in a position to study the effects of boosters, and we hope that as many people as possible over the age of 30 who received their first dose early in the NHS programme will be able to take part.”