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 30 August 2008 09:07 BST

Trials show potential for meningitis vaccine

Thursday, 15 May 2008 13:51
The vaccine could potentially protect infants against meningitis B
Trials of a new vaccine revealed that it holds promise to be the first broad coverage jab to protect infants against meningitis B.

Each year about 500,000 cases of meningitis occur worldwide, causing 50,000 deaths.

The meningococcal B strain causes 72 per cent of meningococcal disease in Europe and is a major cause of the disease in other regions of the world.

Drug company Novartis studied the effects of its meningitis B vaccine - MenB - in 150 healthy UK infants.

They were given the vaccine with routine immunisations at two, four and six months of age, along with a booster dose at 12 months of age.

Vaccine response was tested against three strains of meningitis B.

The vaccine was well tolerated and produced a protective response of 100, 98 and 93 per cent after the booster dose.

The findings were presented at the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases annual meeting in Graz, Austria.

"There is a strong medical need for an effective vaccine to prevent meningitis B infections, and our commitment to developing new vaccine technologies may soon provide a broad spectrum meningitis B vaccine," said Joerg Reinhardt, chief executive of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics.

Commenting on the trial, Dr Ray Borrow from the UK's Health Protection Agency said: "The prospect of one vaccine that protects infants worldwide against meningococcal serogroup B would be a key achievement in global disease prevention of our time.

"Of those infected with the meningococcal B strain, there is a strong likelihood that the bacterium contains at least one of the antigens included in the Novartis MenB vaccine. These new findings tell us that the vaccine is likely to kill strains that contain the vaccine's antigens."

Meningitis UK chief executive Steve Dayman added: "This is an encouraging development but we would like to stress that it is vital that research continues as there is still a long way to go to reach a meningitis B vaccine which is proven to provide broad coverage against all strains.

"The meningitis B bacterium is incredibly complex and developing a vaccine to protect against it has always been one of the biggest challenges in meningitis vaccine development.

"When developing a vaccine, there are so many avenues that need to be explored and sadly the vast majority of approaches will fail at some stage."

Phase three trials of the drug are now underway.
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