The study was to evaluate the safety, immunogenicity and lot-to-lot consistency of live attenuated varicella vaccine in Chinese population aged 1-3 years. The double-blind, randomized phase III trial was conducted in Henan Province, China. In total, 1197 subjects were included in this study. Subjects were randomly assigned into four groups in a 2:2:2:1 ratio to receive one of the three lots of commercial scale (CS) vaccine or the licensed pilot scale (LPS) vaccine. Seroconversion rate and neutralizing antibody titers (NATb) were assessed at day 0 pre-vaccination and at day 30 post-vaccination. Safety data were recorded for 30 days post-vaccination. After vaccination, the geometric mean titers (GMTs) of the three CS groups were 25.04 (95% confidence interval [CI], 22.85 to 27.44), 24.47 (95% CI, 22.35 to 26.78) and 25.88 (95% CI, 23.61 to 28.36), respectively (P= 0.6928). The ratio of GMTs adjusted for covariates of each pair of lots were all between 0.67 to 1.50 in susceptible subjects. The difference of seroconversion rate between pooled CS group and LPS group was 3.82 (95% CI, 0.55 to 8.81). Meanwhile, the percentage of solicited local, systemic and unsolicited adverse reactions showed no difference across the four groups, and most of the adverse reactions were mild or moderate in intensity. The CS group was comparable to the LPS group in safety and immunogenicity. The consistency of three consecutive CS lots was reliable. Moreover, the CS group was non-inferior to the LPS group.
Keywords: consistency; immunogenicity; live attenuated varicella vaccine; phase III clinical trial; safety.