Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) yesterday reported higher neutralizing antibody levels in people who were given its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster after two AstraZeneca doses, the company said.
In a trial of 200 participants who received Medigen’s COVID-19 vaccine, neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 grew by 5.7 times one month after being administered, Taoyuan General Hospital said.
Medigen said that the results have been submitted to medRxiv, an online platform for researchers to share complete but unpublished papers.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Another trial conducted by National Taiwan University Hospital showed that among 45 participants who received three doses of the Medigen vaccine, the level of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant gradually fell, similar to those who received three doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines such as those made by Pfizer-BionNTech and Moderna Inc.
“This result indicates that our vaccine, as a booster shot, provided protection against the Omicron variant to some degree,” Medigen said.
The company said that people who have received adenovirus-based vaccines, such as the one made by AstraZeneca, or mRNA-based vaccines could consider taking the Medigen vaccine as a third shot given its safety profile, mild side effects and immunogenicity.
Medigen’s vaccine is a protein subunit vaccine, developed by recombinant technology. It comprises the recombinant spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 as the antigen to help a person’s body recognize the virus if a person becomes infected.
The company said that it would recruit 960 participants for a “mix-and-match” clinical trial in which it plans to test the safety and immunogenicity of different combinations of multiple brands of COVID-19 vaccines.
Medigen has received a subsidy of US$2.3 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international foundation, to conduct the trial.
The trial is to be carried out in four hospitals, and recruitment of participants has begun, it said.
As of Sunday, 1.51 million people had received two doses of Medigen’s vaccine, accounting for four percent of 36.17 million who had received two COVID-19 shots, while 112,838 people had chosen the vaccine as booster shot, Centers for Disease Control data showed.
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