Chang Gung Memorial Hospital is aiming to begin a clinical trial in two weeks to determine which brand of COVID-19 vaccine to use in booster shots, a hospital official said on Saturday.
The hospital has received approval from the Ministry of Health and Welfare to conduct the trial, in which people fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine would receive a booster of one of three other brands, hospital vaccination team leader Chiu Cheng-hsun (邱政洵) said.
The hospital plans to recruit 400 people for the trial, and is focusing on frontline medical personnel and airline crew, as these groups have a higher risk of contracting the disease, Chiu said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Frontline medical workers and airline employees were also among the first to be fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca, the only COVID-19 vaccine in use when Taiwan’s vaccination program began on March 22. A second brand, Moderna, was included as of June 9.
Chiu said that many medical workers came forward to volunteer for the trial, but airline crew members have been more difficult to recruit due to scheduling conflicts.
Participants are to be divided into four groups, three of which are to be given a booster using a full dose of one of the other brands being administered in Taiwan — Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech or the locally developed Medigen, Chiu said, adding that the fourth group is to be administered a half-dose of Moderna.
Half of a normal Moderna dose “induces robust antibody responses against the Delta variant” of SARS-CoV-2, the company said.
The US and EU have added the half-dose of Moderna to its booster schedule, to be administered six months after the initial inoculation is completed.
The participants in the Chang Gung trial are to have their blood tested one month, six months and 12 months after receiving the booster so that the hospital can monitor neutralizing antibody levels and changes in their immune systems.
Chiu said the hospital hopes to have preliminary results in March or April next year.
Although countries such as the US, Australia and Israel are introducing COVID-19 booster shots, Chiu said he believes that other medications being developed to treat the disease are more likely to end the pandemic.
Although mutations have created SARS-CoV-2 variants around the world, it is unlikely that the vaccines would become like an annual flu shot, given ongoing efforts to develop drugs to treat the disease, he added.
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