EU research group develops TB vaccine
Project has received €12m in funding
A European Union (EU)-funded research consortium is developing the first tuberculosis vaccine based on mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB.
Switzerland’s medicines authority Swissmedic has now authorised clinical trials in healthy adult volunteers.
The project has been financed through the NEWTBVAC project, which has received €12m from the EU, and the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), a Europe-based consortium that is developing new TB medicines, has coordinated the project.
Companies involved include Belgium’s GSK-Biologicals, France’s PX’Therapeutics and Spain’s Biofabri/CZ Veterinaria.
EU research commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn welcomed the new drug, which is called MTBVAC.
‘Tuberculosis is a killer that claims seven victims every hour in Europe alone, with particularly drug-resistant strains emerging,’ she said. ‘It is a good example of the collaborative character of European research.’
She added that the vaccine had been developed for more than ten years in many laboratories, but ‘few countries could undertake such a sustained effort on their own’.
Professor Carlos Martin, of Spain’s Zaragoza University, the vaccine's lead developer, said the new drug could potentially replace the only currently available vaccine BCG, which ‘provides very limited protection against TB’.
The clinical trials will be performed at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and follow successful pre-clinical trials.