CanSinoBIO’s Convidecia effective as booster against Omicron

According to an academic paper on the efficacy of CanSinoBIO’s recombinant COVID-19 vaccine, published on medRxiv, the vaccine is effective as a heterologous booster against the Omicron variant.

The study was open and parallel-controlled, with 904 participants involved. They were each randomly assigned to four groups to receive one of the following boosters: one dose of Convidecia via intramuscular injection, one dose of the inhaled version, one dose of recombinant protein subunit vaccine, and one dose of inactivated vaccine.

The results show that booster vaccination with either intramuscular injection, or an inhaled version of Convidecia, generated greater neutralising antibody responses than those induced by the homologous inactivated vaccine booster or heterologous recombinant protein vaccine booster.

A heterologous booster with one dose of Convidecia can significantly increase cellular immune protection against the transmission of and infection with the Omicron variant, and effectively prevent severe cases and immune escape.

Convidecia also demonstrated proven protection against the Omicron variant. The two groups who received this as a booster exhbited significantly higher immune responses, with a GMT of 320 for the inhaled group, and a GMT of 261 for the intramuscular group 14 days after booster vaccination. The GMT results of the recombinant protein vaccine and inactivated vaccine groups were 86, respectively.

The inhaled version of Convidecia provides an effective and efficient alternative for the booster vaccination programme, as it can also induce mucosal immunity to achieve triple protection with only one fifth the dosage of an injectable version of Convidecia.

Lina Adams