New TB vaccine moves a step closer
25 July 2008
Isis Innovation Ltd, the technology transfer arm of the University of Oxford, has announced a new joint venture with biopharmaceutical company Emergent BioSolutions Inc. to develop the vaccine.
Dr McShane will conduct a phase IIb clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of the vaccine in infants, due to begin in South Africa in 2009. The trial will be funded by a £4 million Strategic Translation Award from the Wellcome Trust and £4m from the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation.
TB, which is caused by the M. tuberculosis bacterium, is thought to kill two million people every year. Currently, the only vaccine against it is the BCG vaccine, which is administered to infants throughout the developing world and most of the developed world. However, the vaccination is only thought to be protective in preventing severe forms of the disease and is not effective in adults. In addition, antibiotics to deal with infection must be administered over many months and are becoming increasingly ineffective as the bacteria develop resistance to the drugs available.
The vaccine currently under development by Dr McShane, known as MVA85A, works in tandem to the BCG, acting as a booster. It uses the 85A antigen, a protein found in all strains of TB, to boost the response of T cells already primed by the BCG vaccine. T cells are produced by the body's immune system to fight infection. This vaccine uses a virus as a delivery system for the protein and the results of the clinical trials to date show the highest T cell responses ever induced with a vaccine.
Dr Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said: "We have been losing the battle against TB for too long, as a result of poor diagnostics, protracted treatment regimes, antibiotic resistance and HIV-induced, immuno-suppression. Conquering this historic enemy has to be one of our highest public health priorities, and developing an effective vaccine is arguably the key to a defensive strategy that will ultimately turn the tide in this insidious war.
"It is first-class science that has brought us this new hope, and it will be first-class partnering that takes us to the next stage. I applaud Dr McShane and her colleagues for their tireless efforts.”
Image: Barbara Bellingham; Wellcome Images