Comparison of the immunogenicity and safety of the purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine manufactured in India and Germany: A randomized, single blind, multicentre, phase IV clinical study

ABSTRACTThis phase IV, single blind study assessed the immunogenicity and safety of India-manufactured purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine (PCECV), compared with a German-manufactured batch obtained by the same production process. A total of 340 participants enrolled at 2 study sites in India were randomized (1:1:1:1) in 4 groups to receive a 5-dose Essen regimen with either 1 of the 3 Indian batches (PCECV-I) or the German batch (PCECV-G), administered on Days (D) 0, 3, 7, 14 and 30. The lot-to-lot consistency of PCECV-I batches in terms of induced immune response at D14 was demonstrated. The immune response elicited by PCECV-I was shown to be non-inferior to that induced by PCECV-G, as the lower limit of the 95% confidence interval for the ratio (PCECV-I/PCECV-G) of rabies virus neutralising antibody (RVNA) geometric mean concentrations was higher than 0.5 at D14. At least 96% of participants developed adequate RVNA concentrations (≥ 0.5 IU/mL) by D14 and all achieved RVNA concentrations ≥ 0.5 IU/...