HYDERABAD: At the 50th Union World Conference on lung health being hosted in Hyderabad, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases released a report on the Phase IIB of GSK’s research on a tuberculosis vaccine.
The results of the vaccine demonstrate an overall efficacy of 50 per cent during the three years after vaccination. Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death due to infectious diseases worldwide and represents a significant public health threat with 1.5 million attributed deaths in 2018. However, there is time before it hits the shelves.
“According to vaccine experts, it won’t be until 2028 that a workable vaccine for Tuberculosis will be available. This research has just completed Phase 2B. We need way more countries to participate for a successful Phase 3. However, if we can market this vaccine even by 2028 and 50 per cent, efficacy it will save millions of lives,” Paula Fujiwara, director, The Union.
The three regions that are involved in the study are Zambia, South Africa, Kenya and involved 3,573 HIV-negative adults between the ages of 18 and 50 years. Participants who received two doses of either M72/AS01E or placebo 30 days apart were followed for three years to detect evidence of pulmonary tuberculosis disease.
In the final analysis, 13 participants in the vaccine group developed active pulmonary tuberculosis compared to 26 participants in the placebo group.
While India has one of the highest numbers of Tuberculosis patients in the world, the country could not be considered for the study as it does not have region-specific concentration of Tuberculosis patients.
