COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness
(Randomized evidence)

Methods

Protocol

Latest news:Last search date July 30, 2023. No further screening is planned after this date. Extraction is ongoing for all pending studies.

A list of studies pending extraction is available here.

meta-COVID

Perform your own analysis using COVID-NMA data for prime vaccination (last search date 14/12/2022), create and download your forest plots by clicking below:

go to metacovid

Vaccine types

COVID-19 BOOSTER DOSE VACCINATION: updated daily

Vaccine efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of booster vs no booster (tables)

Vaccine efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of booster VS booster (tables)

COVID-19 PRIME VACCINATION: Last search date December 14, 2022.

Vaccine efficacy and safety for vaccine vs placebo / no vaccine (forest plots)

Vaccine efficacy and safety for vaccine vs vaccine (forest plots)

Vaccine efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of heterologous vs homologous vaccination (tables)

Vaccine efficacy and safety against variants of concern (forest plots)

Trials reports under extraction

In addition to the below included trials, we have included and presently extracting 12 new vaccine randomized trials

Description of primary studies

In this table, we report the main characteristics of the COVID-19 vaccine candidates from RCTs identified, in addition to the overall risk of bias assessment.

For prime vaccination, early phase trials were extracted only when the dose has been selected. Results from phase 1-2 studies are included in forest plots for the chosen vaccine dose and schedule only. List of early phases included but not extracted are detailed on here .

Search studies

Search by Vaccine name Author Registration number
Trial Type Comparisons Design Participants Sample size Overall risk
of bias
Highest assessment
Full description
Intervention 1 Intervention 2
NCT04400838 ; ISRCTN
University of Oxford/AstraZeneca
Ramasamy MN, Lancet, 2020

Full text
Commentary
(20)32481-8/fulltext ; Commentary
; Commentary
Non replicating viral vector

Non replicating viral vector ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine - 2·2 × 10¹? vp x 2 doses on day 0/28

Non replicating viral vector ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine - 2·2 × 10¹? vp x 2 doses on day 0/28

RCT
Phase 2/3
Healthy adults in two centres in the UK N= NR N/A

Full description

NCT04651790
Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd
Abarca K, medRxiv, 2022

Full text
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Inactivated virus

CoronaVac

Coronavac D0/28

RCT
Phase 3
Healthy adults including health care workers with no history of confirmed symptomatic SARS CoV-2 infection at eight centres in Chile N= 2302
Some concerns
Details

Full description

jRCT2051210164
VLP Therapeutics Japan; Pfizer/BioNTech + Fosun Pharma
Akahata W , SSRN, 2023 b

Full text
Full text
Commentary
Commentary
saRNA based vaccine

BNT162b2/Boost VLPCOV-01 0.3 mcg

BNT162b2/Boost VLPCOV-01 1 mcg

BNT162b2/Boost VLPCOV-01 3 mcg

BNT162b2/boostBNT

RCT
Phase 1
Healthy adults, ≥65 years years of age, SARS-CoV-2 infection-free in a single centre in Japan. N= 46
Some concerns
Details

Full description

jRCT2051210164
VLP Therapeutics Japan; Pfizer/BioNTech + Fosun Pharma
Akahata W, SSRN, 2023 a

Full text
Full text
Commentary
Commentary
saRNA based vaccine

BNT162b2/Boost VLPCOV-01 0.3 mcg

BNT162b2/Boost VLPCOV-01 1 mcg

BNT162b2/Boost VLPCOV-01 3 mcg

BNT162b2/boostBNT

RCT
Phase 1
Healthy adults, 18 to 55 years of age, SARS-CoV-2 infection-free in a single centre in Japan. N= 46
Some concerns
Details

Full description

NCT04510207, ChiCTR2000034780
Sinopharm-Beijing
Al Kaabi N, JAMA, 2021

Full text
Commentary
Commentary
Inactivated virus

BBIBP-CorV

Adjuvant

RCT
Phase 3
Healthy adults free of known COVID-19 or HIV infection at 3 centres in United Arab Emirates and Bahrain N= 40411
Some concerns
Details

Full description

NCT04510207
Sinopharm
Al Kaabi N, Vaccines, 2023

Full text
Commentary
Inactivated virus

BBIBP-CorV/Boost BBIBP-CorV

WIBP-CorV/Boost WIBP-CorV

Placebo/Boost placebo

RCT
Phase 3
Healthy volunteers with no history of SARS-CoV-2 in a single center in United Arab Emirates N= 9370
Some concerns
Details

Full description

NCT04510207, ChiCTR2000034780
Sinopharm-Wuhan
Al Kaabi N, JAMA, 2021

Full text
Commentary
Commentary
Inactivated virus

WIBP-CorV

Adjuvant

RCT
Phase 3
Healthy adults free of known COVID-19 or HIV infection at 3 centres in United Arab Emirates and Bahrain N= 40411
Some concerns
Details

Full description

NCT05293548
National Vaccine and Serum Institute, China, Beijing Zhong Sheng Heng Pharmaceutical Technology, Lanzhou Institute of Biological Products; Sinopharm-Beijing
Al Kaabi N, Signal Transduct Ther, 2023

Full text
Commentary
Commentary
Protein subunit

BBIBP-CorV/Boost NVSI-06-09

BBIBP-CorV/Boost BBIBP-CorV

RCT
Phase 2
Healthy adults previously vaccinated with two or three doses of BBIBP-CorV at least 6 months prior to enrollment at a single center in United Arab Emirates N= 516
Some concerns
Details

Full description

NCT05069129
Sinopharm-Beijing/ National Vaccine and Serum Institute, China
Al Kaabi N, Nat Commun, 2022 b

Full text
Commentary
Commentary
Heterologous booster

BBIBP-CorV/boostNVSI-06-08 4-6m

BBIBP-CorV/boostNVSI-06-08 7-9m

BBIBP-CorV/boostNVSI-06-08 >9m

BBIBP-CorV/boostBBIBP-CorV 4-6 months

BBIBP-CorV/boostBBIBP-CorV 7-9m

BBIBP-CorV/boostBBIBP-CorV >9m

RCT
Phase 2
Healthy adults that were HIV-negative and with no previous history of COVID-19 in a single centre in the United Arab Emirates. N= 1833
Some concerns
Details

Full description

NCT04649151
ModernaTX
Ali K, N Engl J Med, 2021

Full text
Commentary
RNA based vaccine

mRNA-1273

Placebo

RCT
Phase 2-3
Healthy adolescents in 26 centers in the USA N= 3732
Some concerns
Details

Full description