A Pragmatic Assessment of Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in the DoD

Summary

A total of 18,000 eligible subjects (or 6,000 subject distributed evenly between the 3 study arms) will be enrolled. Eligible subjects will be randomized in 1:1:1 (cell-culture-based vaccine, the recombinant vaccine, or the egg-based vaccine) over four influenza seasons (2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022).

Timeline

Start

2018-11-06

Primary completion

2022-07-07

Completion

2026-06-30

Publications

• Background Sanchez JL, Cooper MJ, Myers CA, Cummings JF, Vest KG, Russell KL, Sanchez JL, Hiser MJ, Gaydos CA. Respiratory Infections in the U.S. Military: Recent Experience and Control. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2015 Jul;28(3):743-800. doi: 10.1128/CMR.00039-14.
• Background Flannery B, Chung JR, Belongia EA, McLean HQ, Gaglani M, Murthy K, Zimmerman RK, Nowalk MP, Jackson ML, Jackson LA, Monto AS, Martin ET, Foust A, Sessions W, Berman L, Barnes JR, Spencer S, Fry AM. Interim Estimates of 2017-18 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness - United States, February 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018 Feb 16;67(6):180-185. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6706a2.
• Background Zost SJ, Parkhouse K, Gumina ME, Kim K, Diaz Perez S, Wilson PC, Treanor JJ, Sant AJ, Cobey S, Hensley SE. Contemporary H3N2 influenza viruses have a glycosylation site that alters binding of antibodies elicited by egg-adapted vaccine strains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Nov 21;114(47):12578-12583. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1712377114. Epub 2017 Nov 6.
• Background Wu NC, Zost SJ, Thompson AJ, Oyen D, Nycholat CM, McBride R, Paulson JC, Hensley SE, Wilson IA. A structural explanation for the low effectiveness of the seasonal influenza H3N2 vaccine. PLoS Pathog. 2017 Oct 23;13(10):e1006682. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006682. eCollection 2017 Oct.
• Background Skowronski DM, Janjua NZ, De Serres G, Sabaiduc S, Eshaghi A, Dickinson JA, Fonseca K, Winter AL, Gubbay JB, Krajden M, Petric M, Charest H, Bastien N, Kwindt TL, Mahmud SM, Van Caeseele P, Li Y. Low 2012-13 influenza vaccine effectiveness associated with mutation in the egg-adapted H3N2 vaccine strain not antigenic drift in circulating viruses. PLoS One. 2014 Mar 25;9(3):e92153. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092153. eCollection 2014.
• Background Cobey S, Gouma S, Parkhouse K, Chambers BS, Ertl HC, Schmader KE, Halpin RA, Lin X, Stockwell TB, Das SR, Landon E, Tesic V, Youngster I, Pinsky BA, Wentworth DE, Hensley SE, Grad YH. Poor Immunogenicity, Not Vaccine Strain Egg Adaptation, May Explain the Low H3N2 Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in 2012-2013. Clin Infect Dis. 2018 Jul 18;67(3):327-333. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciy097.
• Background Wang W, Butler EN, Veguilla V, Vassell R, Thomas JT, Moos M Jr, Ye Z, Hancock K, Weiss CD. Establishment of retroviral pseudotypes with influenza hemagglutinins from H1, H3, and H5 subtypes for sensitive and specific detection of neutralizing antibodies. J Virol Methods. 2008 Nov;153(2):111-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2008.07.015. Epub 2008 Sep 4.
• Background Wang W, Xie H, Ye Z, Vassell R, Weiss CD. Characterization of lentiviral pseudotypes with influenza H5N1 hemagglutinin and their performance in neutralization assays. J Virol Methods. 2010 May;165(2):305-10. doi: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2010.02.009. Epub 2010 Feb 11.
• Colombo RE, Richard SA, Schmidt K, Schofield C, Ganesan A, Campbell W, Hrncir D, Lalani T, Mende K, Markelz AE, Berjohn CM, Housel L, Becher D, Zell ER, Ewing D, Sundaram AK, Modi JR, Saperstein A, Tilley DH Jr, Williams A, McClenathan B, Collins L, Spooner C, Seshadri S, Fries A, Maves RC, Powers Iii JH, O'Connell RJ, Pollett SD, Simons MP, Coles CL, Burgess TH; PAIVED Study Group. Randomized Pragmatic Trial of the Comparative Effectiveness of Chicken Egg-Based Inactivated, Mammalian Cell Culture-Based Inactivated, and Recombinant Protein Quadrivalent Seasonal Influenza Vaccines in United States Military Health System Beneficiaries. Clin Infect Dis. 2025 Dec 24;81(5):e454-e463. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaf503.

Drugs

Indications