Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine which has been licensed to AstraZeneca shows better results when two full-doses are used rather than one and a half dose, the university said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the licensee AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company posted a report based on interim stage trials which showed better performance of the vaccine when one full dose and then a half dose is given to the beneficiary instead of two full-doses, the exact opposite to the Oxford claim.
The university had explored both the cases, a full dose followed by another and other, full dose followed by a half dose scenario. It said that it had investigated the latter case as a possible “dose sparing” strategy.
The details from the Phase I/II clinical trials released on Thursday made no reference to the half-dose/full-dose regime, which Oxford has said had been "unplanned" but approved by regulators.
"The booster doses of the vaccine are both shown to induce stronger antibody responses than a single dose, the standard dose/standard dose inducing the best response," the university said in a statement.
After publishing further data from the Phase I/II clinical trials, it further said, the vaccine "stimulates broad antibody and T cell functions.”
