Study on mixing Covaxin, Covishield gets drug controller's approval

"Permission has been granted for a research study by CMC Vellore (Tamil Nadu) on mixing of vaccines doses," Dr VK Paul, NITI Aayog Member (Health), said in a press briefing on Tuesday, according to NDTV.

Vellore's Christian Medical College will conduct the study and its clinical trials, the report said.

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

This study would be different from the one conducted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

ICMR studied 18 people, 11 male, and seven female with a median age of 62 years, in Uttar Pradesh in India who received Covishield as the first dose followed by inadvertent administration of Covaxin, said the report.

The study revealed that vaccination with a combination of an adenovirus vector platform-based vaccine followed by an inactivated whole virus vaccine was not only safe but also triggered better immunogenicity, the top health body said.

"We did a comparison with heterogeneous group and homologous group, we found better immune response, if somebody gets Covishield first and Covaxin second that it gives better immunity. This is the first study on a combination of Adenovector and whole variant vaccines," Dr Samiran Panda, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases, ICMR, said, the report said.

However, it added that more detailed and in-depth research must be done on the limitations, as the study is done on a small group of 18 participants.