Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody titers against the vaccine strains were assessed
at GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines central laboratory using validated assay methods as previously described [18]. The primary objective was to assess the lot-to-lot consistency of three QIV lots based on GMTs at Day 21 post-vaccination. Secondary objectives were to evaluate: the superiority of GMTs at Day 21 for QIV versus TIV-Vic against the Yamagata B strain, and QIV versus TIV-Yam against the Victoria B strain (i.e. B strains absent Screening Library concentration from each TIV); and the non-inferiority of GMTs at Day 21 for QIV versus TIV-Vic + TIV-Yam against all four strains, QIV versus TIV-Vic against the Victoria B strain, and QIV versus TIV-Yam against the Yamagata B strain (i.e. shared strains). Immunogenicity was described at Day 0, 21, and 180
(sub-cohort) including GMTs, seroprotection rate (SPR; proportion with post-vaccination titer ≥1:40), seroconversion rate (SCR; proportion with antibody titer <1:10 at baseline and with post-vaccination titer of ≥1:40, or pre-vaccination titer of ≥1:10 and a ≥4-fold post-vaccination increase in titer), and seroconversion factor (SCF; geometric mean of the ratio between pre-vaccination and post-vaccination reciprocal HI titers). Subjects with HI antibody Src inhibitor titers of ≥1:10 were considered to be seropositive. Immunogenicity was also assessed according to US
Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) licensure criteria. The occurrence and intensity of solicited adverse events (AEs) was recorded heptaminol by subjects on diary cards and included local symptoms (pain, redness, and swelling) and general symptoms (arthralgia, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, headache, generalised myalgia, shivering, and fever). Unsolicited AEs were assessed prospectively at each study visit. Injection site reactions were considered to be related to the vaccine and investigators provided causality assessments for solicited general symptoms and unsolicited events. Reactogenicity and safety outcome measures (secondary objectives) were local and general solicited adverse events during the 7-day post-vaccination period, unsolicited AEs during the 21-day post-vaccination period, and medically attended events (MAEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs) during the 6 months study period. The target sample size for the QIV group was 400 subjects assigned to each of the three QIV lots; assuming 6% will be non-evaluable and equivalence among the lots, 375 evaluable subjects per lot would have 92% power using Bonferroni’s adjustment to meet the consistency criterion. The target sample size for each TIV group was 200 subjects, giving 190 evaluable subjects assuming 5% will be non-evaluable.