MANILA, Philippines (Updated 2:20 p.m.) — A study looking into the possibility of mixing and matching different COVID-19 vaccine brands may start next month, the Department of Science and Technology said Monday.
The trial, which will be implemented by the Philippine Society of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, will involve 1,200 participants and will run for 18 months, DOST Secretary Fortunato Dela Peña said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
Related Stories
The study is awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration and the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board.
“We have seven vaccines with Emergency Use Authorization but we can’t be sure if the second dose will arrive on the time it will be needed so we may need to have a combination of vaccines,” Dela Peña said in Filipino
“The data that will come out of the study will be used as a basis for the guidelines or policy of DOH on vaccine rollout, particularly in situations where there are limited vaccine supplies,” he added.
The study will focus on pairing Sinovac with other brands, DOST said in a statement. It will be conducted in eight sites across the country.
Early in May, the Department of Health said the protocol of using a single brand of COVID-19 vaccine for the first and second doses remains as experts study the mix-and-match approach.
An early study indicated that people who received mixed doses of COVID-19 vaccines appeared to be more likely to experience mild side effects such as chills, fever or fatigue, CNN reported. But the adverse reactions following mix-and-match inoculations were short lived, with no other safety concerns.
The DOH said government is also planning to study the use of booster shots, which may offer enduring protection against the novel coronavirus and its variants.
So far, only four brands are being used in the government’s vaccination program: Sinovac Biotech, AstraZeneca, Gamaleya Research Institute and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Since the start of the inoculation drive in March, only 949,939 people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while over 3.1 million have received their first dose.