Covishield Generated Higher Antibodies than Covaxin, Says New Study

New Delhi: According to a recent study, the Covishield vaccine against Coronavirus generated higher antibody levels and stronger immune responses than Covaxin.

Both vaccines were used in India against the 2019 coronavirus. India vaccinated nearly a billion people against Covid-19 with Covishield and Covaxin in 2021 and 2022.

Covishield was developed in the UK and was produced in India by the Serum Institute of India. It uses a genetically engineered adenovirus containing coronavirus proteins to generate immunity against the virus. Covaxin developed by India’s Bharat Biotech contains inactivated or killed coronavirus particles.

The recent study on the two vaccines involved scientists at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, and 10 collaborating institutions. Funds for the study came from Hindustan Unilever’s corporate social responsibility initiatives.

The researchers tracked immune responses in 691 volunteers aged between 18 and 45 years from June 2021 to January 2022 before and after they received the vaccines.

It was found that Covishield administration resulted in higher antibody responses than Covaxin — 98.3 per cent compared with 74.4 per cent in people not exposed to the coronavirus, and 91.7 per cent compared with 66.9 per cent in people who already had antibodies from prior coronavirus exposure.

They also found that Covishield recipients consistently exhibited higher levels of antibodies than Covaxin recipients against the delta and omicron strains of the virus that had fuelled the country’s second and third COVID-19 waves.