CEPI to fund Sabin Vaccine Institute trial to see efficacy of lower doses of COVID boosters
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Washington, D.C.-based Sabin Vaccine Institute has been awarded up to $6.3M from vaccine alliance CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) for a dose-optimizing COVID-19 vaccine trial.
The clinical trial will evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of lower, fractional doses of registered COVID-19 vaccines used as a booster dose.

The trial will see whether smaller doses of COVID-19 shots generate similar immune responses to full doses.
The trial will be conducted in Brazil and Pakistan with about 1.4K participants per country, and will be funded by CEPI.
Trial subjects will get either a full or a fractioned booster dose of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) and Sinovac (NASDAQ:SVA) COVID-19 vaccines, given a minimum of six months after the primary two-dose schedule or after natural infection.
"Should fractional COVID-19 vaccine booster dosing strategies prove successful, this approach could provide a prudent way to maximise the availability of future COVID-19 vaccine doses if needed â for example if demand was to increase following the emergence of a new variant," Sabin said in Tuesday's statement.