Prevnar 13 Vaccine For Pneumococcal Disease For Adults Meets All Endpoints

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Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 10 May 2011 - 0:00 PDT


Prevnar 13, a pneumonia vaccine, was found effective for patients aged 50+ in two clinical trials as its maker, Pfizer, applies to expand the vaccine's use. Pfizer says the vaccine met all study endpoints. The trials showed that Prevnar 13 is can produce an immune response at least as effectively as the currently approved PPSV (nonconjugated pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine).

Prevnar 13 also elicited a higher functional antibody response than PPSV against most serotypes common to both vaccines and serotype 6A (which is not contained in PPSV).

Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPH, principal investigator, Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, said:

"Both pivotal studies met their primary objectives and demonstrated that Prevnar 13 was at least as immunogenic to PPSV for the 12 disease-causing serotypes common to both vaccines. The data also showed that Prevnar 13 induced significantly higher levels of functional antibodies than PPSV in the adults studied for the majority of the common serotypes."

Prevnar 13 is already approved for use in infants and children up to six years of age in over 90 nations around the world.

Emilio Emini, PhD, chief scientific officer, Vaccine Research, Pfizer Inc., said:

"Prevnar 13 represents an important scientific achievement and we are excited about the potential to further define its clinical utility with the aim of broadening pneumococcal disease prevention efforts. Adults 50 years and older are a population at heightened risk for pneumococcal disease, which imposes a significant public health and economic burden worldwide."

Vaccine sales, including Prevnar 13 and a previous versions (Prevnar 7) reached $1.1 billion during the first quarter of this year, 43% higher than the first quarter of 2010.

Pfizer expects a decision from the FDA on Prevnar 13 for older adults in October this year.

Pneumococcal disease - approximately 50,000 Americans die from pneumonia and invasive infections of pneumococcal bacteria in the bloodstream annually, the CDC says. Pneumococcal disease is a major cause of illness and death in adults globally.

Experts surveyed by Bloomberg believe Prevnar sales will be over $5.5 billion by 2015.

Written by Christian Nordqvist


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