Drug regulator DCGI gives nod for conducting study on mixing Covaxin and Covishield

Photo used for representational purpose

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given nod for conducting a study on mixing Covaxin and Covishield, the two main vaccines of the Covid-19 vaccination programme in India.

A Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had recommended conducting the study on July 29.

The study will be conducted by the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, official sources said on Wednesday. The trial will involve 300 healthy volunteers.

"The aim of the study is to assess the feasibility on whether a person can be given two different vaccine shots -- one each of Covishield and Covaxin -- to complete the inoculation course," a source said.

This study will be different from the one by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that revealed that the combination of Covaxin and Covishield vaccines, conducted on 18 people, has elicited better safety and immunogenicity results.

The nationwide vaccination program had entered into 4th month when the event of mixed dosing raised considerable anxiety in the public domain with the potential to contributing to vaccine hesitancy.

ICMR conducted the current investigation against that backdrop. The study was conducted on individuals in Uttar Pradesh who received Covishield as the first dose followed by inadvertent administration of Covaxin as the second dose at an interval of six weeks. A total of 18 participants were in the heterologous group.

The immunization program against Covid-19 in India started with two vaccines - AstraZeneca's ChAdOx1-nCov-19 (termed Covishield in India) and inactivated whole virion BBV152 (Covaxin).

(With agency inputs)