The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Taiwan-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. (MVC) will co-fund a clinical trial of heterologous and fractional booster doses – or ‘mix-and-match’ booster – combinations of MVC’s COVID-19 vaccine, known as MVC-COV1901, with other COVID-19 vaccines. Norway-based CEPI will provide up to $2.3 million in co-funding, with MVC funding the remaining cost of the clinical trial.

The new clinical trial will assess the safety and immunogenicity of a third full or fractional dose of MVC-COV1901 in people previously immunized with a primary regimen of MVC-COV1901 or vaccines developed by AstraZeneca or Moderna.

This will be the first mix-and-match booster study to include MVC-COV1901, a vaccine that can be manufactured at scale and has a profile which potentially makes it suitable for broad distribution, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)

The clinical trial will be conducted at trial sites in Taiwan and will be sponsored by MVC. Up to 960 adult and elderly participants will be enrolled into the trial.

Trial participants will be followed up for six months to gather data about the durability of immune responses. The first interim results are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2022.