Coronavirus: Research

(asked on 27th February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on starting an antibody testing pilot study for those who remain vulnerable to poor outcomes from COVID-19 despite vaccination; and when the funding will be confirmed.


Answered by
Lord Markham Portrait
Lord Markham
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 6th March 2023

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has funded a new study to establish whether antibody testing can identify which patient groups remain at greatest risk of severe COVID-19 infection after vaccinations. The Stratification of Clinically Vulnerable People for COVID-19 Risk Using Antibody Testing (STRAVINSKY) study will involve testing 3,000 immune vulnerable participants and will also pool data from previous studies in vulnerable patients, to give a deeper understanding of antibody testing for vaccine responsiveness and protection, and if possible, define antibody testing thresholds for COVID-19 risk. This will aim to improve the understanding of COVID-19 risk in immunosuppressed individuals to inform future advice. This was announced on 2 March and the study has been funded for 24 months.

The Department discussed a research application for antibody testing from the trial leads of successful COVID immunology trials including OCTAVE, MELODY, PROSECO, and other studies. Due to the urgent need for the research NIHR agreed that the application could be submitted to the fast-track scheme. The full proposal was reviewed by a specialised independent funding committee, who recommended funding and approval was provided by the Department in January 2023.

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