The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) which met today to discuss some crucial issues regarding the updation of the existing Covid-19 protocol has recommended mixing vaccine doses.
The SEC is in favour of mixing and matching Covishield and Covaxin vaccine doses, sources told CNN-News18, adding that it has recommended that permission be granted to Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, for conducting a clinical trial on mixing of Covaxin and Covishield.
With growing murmurs around the supposed increased efficiency of mixing two different vaccines as the coronavirus continues to mutate and evolve, the expert panel discussed in detail the interchangeability protocol of Covaxin and Covishield. The application was moved by CMC Vellore.
This will be the first mix and match study in India of the two indigenous vaccines.
A section of experts advocated that using vaccines based on two different platforms could trigger a better immune response in a beneficiary.
The mix-and-match strategy is known as a heterologous prime and boost and has been used in the past against diseases such as Ebola and AIDS.
Traditionally, doses of the same vaccine are given multiple times as homologous boosts. New findings indicate that prime-boost can be done with different vaccines containing the same antigens. In many cases, such heterologous prime-boost can be more immunogenic than homologous prime-boost.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had received a Moderna coronavirus vaccine as her second jab, after getting the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, bringing the spotlight once again on the mix-and-match of Covid-19 shots.
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