Testing vaccines in Bristol – researcher coffee mornings series
1 February 2023
A University of Bristol professor is working on a new project to use vaccines approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the city, ahead of a national roll out. Professor Adam Finn shared information about this project and asked for feedback from public contributors during one of the People in Health West of England’s researcher coffee mornings.
Lung infections are a big health problem. They get worse and are more frequent as we get older. The MHRA is responsible for making sure that medicines are safe and effective, and it has approved new vaccines to help combat some of these infections. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), a body responsible for making recommendations about vaccines and advising UK health departments, hasn’t recommended them for national rollout yet.
Professor Finn and his colleagues would like to run research studies in Bristol hospitals and GP practices to see how effective some of these vaccines are. The research team plan on delivering MHRA-approved vaccines just to the Bristol population. They will do this for free through the normal GP system, similarly to pneumonia or flu vaccines.
The team will then provide the JCVI with the results of their research, which might help it decide whether the vaccines should be made more widely available within a shorter timescale. To make this type of decision, the JCVI needs to know whether a vaccine reduces the number of people dying from a particular disease, decreases the overall severity of that disease or reduces the number of people being admitted into hospital with it.
Professor Adam Finn, project supervisor, said:
“During this project we would like to administer an MHRA-approved vaccine to the Bristol community. Doing this will allow us to conduct research and provide the JCVI with information about its real-world impact. This, in turn, will hopefully allow them to make a well-informed, rapid decision for the rest of the country.”
Watch the full session here:
This talk was part of our regular researcher coffee mornings, where members of the public can hear about local research projects and give researchers feedback on their work. Coffee mornings are informal and designed to give researchers and public contributors a chance to interact. Public contributors are encouraged to ask questions, learn about, and get involved in projects in their area.
Coffee mornings will usually take place on Thursdays between 10.00-11.00am.