The vaccine was approved for the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate has a better immune response when a two-dose system is used rather than a full dose and a half-dose increase, the university said Thursday, citing data from early tests.
Developers of the vaccine candidate, licensed to the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, have already published later stage test results showing higher efficacy when a half dose is followed by a full dose, compared to total two-dose regimen. However, more work needs to be done to confirm that outcome.
The latest details from the Phase I and 2 clinical trials published on Thursday made no mention of the half-dose / full-dose regimen, which Oxford said was “unplanned” but approved by regulators. .
Once seen as the first in the development of the coronavirus vaccine, a British team was taken over by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, whose photos were released in Britain and the US on the this month.
Earlier published data from later Phase 3 trials showed that 62 percent had efficacy for test participants who received two full doses, but 90 percent stronger for a smaller subgroup given first half, then full dose.
In their statement Thursday, the university said it examined two dosing regimens in early trials, a full-dose / full-dose regimen and a full-dose / half-dose regimen, which were studied as pre- a possible “sad dose” mechanism.
“The increased doses of the vaccine have been shown to induce stronger antibody responses than a single dose, the normal dose / standard dose stimulating the optimal response,” the university said in a statement.
The vaccine “stimulates broad-spectrum antibody and T-cell activity,” he said.