In adults who had previously received a full regimen of a COVID-19 vaccine approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an additional dose of any of these COVID-19 vaccines was safe and prompted an immune response, according to study findings published Jan. 26 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The study’s preliminary data had informed the FDA’s recommendation in October to allow mix-and-match of COVID-19 vaccine boosters—that is, to administer boosters whose formulation differs from that of the primary vaccine series.
“This strategy provides people with more options to receive a different formulation if it’s all that is available. It simplifies the distribution of vaccines to get boosters in as many people as possible,” said Dr. Christine Johnston, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She oversaw a Seattle trial site that enrolled 46 study participants and was one of 10 sites nationwide.
The findings are from an ongoing trial conducted by members of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC) and sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The trial began enrollment in May 2021. Its principal investigators are Drs. Robert Atmar of Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and Kirsten Lyke of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
