DCGI Gives Approval To Study On Mixing Covaxin And Covishield

New Delhi:  The Drugs Controller General Of India (DCGI) has approved a study on mixing Covishiled and Covaxin, two of the three COVID-19 vaccines currently available in India. The study will be conducted by the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore.

Giving this information at a press conference, Niti Aayog member VK Paul said, “Permission has been granted for a research study by CMC Vellore on mixing of vaccines doses.”

It may be recalled that on July 29, the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had said that it was in favour of mixing Covishield and Covaxin to inoculate India’s population.

A study conducted on 18 people who had been mistakenly given both Covaxin and Covishield in Uttar Pradhesh’s Siddharth Nagar by the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) found that combining the two vaccines saw better immunogenicity than two doses of the same vaccine.  However, the study has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Among the countries that have allowed the mixing of different vaccine doses are Canada, Thailand, Vietnam, Bhutan, UK and the US. A study in Denmark, combining doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, known as Covishield in India, with Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna’s jab showed it provided good protection against the COVID-19 virus. A study in Russia showed that mixing Sputnik V, also available in India, with the AstraZeneca vaccine had no serious side effects, News18 reported.