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The Oxford Clinical Trials Research Unit at Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology & Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS) played a key role in the Vaccine Response On Off Methotrexate (VROOM) study which found that pausing immune-suppressing medicines such as methotrexate can increase the response to COVID-19 booster jabs.

Vials of the Covid-19 vaccine © SHUTTERSTOCK

A major clinical trial, led by experts at the University of Nottingham working in partnership with several Universities and NHS hospitals, has found that by interrupting the treatment of vulnerable people on long-term immune suppressing medicines for two weeks after a COVID-19 booster vaccination, their antibody response to the jab is doubled.

The VROOM trial was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council, and run by the Oxford Clinical Trials Research Unit (OCTRU) at NDORMS. It was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Manchester, Imperial College London, the University of Oxford and Queen Mary University London.

The study will have implications for people on immune-supressing medicines, who are among the millions of clinically vulnerable patients advised to 'shield' during the pandemic.

Read the full story on the NDORMS website.