Mixing Covid Vaccines Should Be Possible, Oxford Trial Head Says
Mixing Covid Vaccines Should Be Possible, Oxford Trial Head Says
(Bloomberg) -- People should be able to mix coronavirus vaccines, so they wouldn’t be precluded from trying a different shot if their first one is less effective, the University of Oxford’s lead trial investigator said.
“The theory is that that should work, and there’s no reason” why it wouldn’t, Andrew Pollard, who is leading the University of Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine trial with AstraZeneca Plc, said Thursday at a press briefing on the group’s latest results. “It should be possible to use one vaccine and then boost with the other.”
Pollard said that because the front runners -- the Astra-Oxford shot, alongside the two from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. -- all target an immune response against the spike-protein of SARS-CoV-2, people should be able to mix them. He cautioned, however, that more studies are needed.
Anticipation is mounting for the Astra-Oxford data after Pfizer and Moderna found their shots, which both use messenger RNA technology, were 95% effective in a final analysis of trial data published in the past 10 days. The Astra-Oxford readout is expected in the coming weeks.
Pollard said there needed to be at least 53 confirmed infections in the study before the data could be unveiled, though with the infection rate rapidly rising the number is likely to be far higher.
Astra and Oxford will release the key results of the trials immediately once they pass the infection benchmark, followed by a more detailed, peer-reviewed data analysis in a scientific journal weeks later, Pollard said.
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