This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Pneumococcal vaccine effective in older adults
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Data from two phase 3 studies indicate that the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was as immunogenic as the currently licensed nonconjugated pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine for the 12 serotypes common to both vaccines in adults aged 50 years and older who were either pneumococcal vaccine-naive or previously vaccinated.
The results were presented at the 21st European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and the 27th International Congress of Chemotherapy (ECCMID/ICC) in Milan, Italy.
“Both pivotal studies met their primary objectives and demonstrated that 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Prevnar 13, Pfizer) was at least as immunogenic to PPSV for the 12 disease-causing serotypes common to both vaccines,” Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPH, study researcher at Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, said in a press release. “The data also showed that the vaccine induced significantly higher levels of functional antibodies than the nonconjugated pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine in adults studied for the majority of the common serotypes.”
The phase 3 trials are comprised of six studies including approximately 6,000 adults aged 50 years and older. Pfizer submitted supplemental applications seeking regulatory approval to expand the use of the vaccine to adults aged 50 years and older in more than 40 countries.
 |
Follow InfectiousDiseaseNews.com on Twitter. |