17 Nov 2012

Meningitis B vaccine approved

A new vaccine against the deadliest form of meningitis is approved for use in the UK, in a move that could save thousands of lives.

Meningitis bacteria (Getty)

The 4CMenB vaccine, which has been developed by pharmaceutical company Novartis under the trade name Bexsero, received a “positive opinion” verdict from the European Medicines Agency on Friday, meaning that it is considered safe and effective. It is expected to receive its UK licence early next year.

Meningitis UK called the news “the biggest leap forward in the field in the three decades”.

The charity wants the vaccine to be introduced into the Government’s routine immunisation schedule as soon as possible, so it will be automatically given to children. The jab is recommended for those aged two months and older.

The UK has one of the highest incidence rates of meningitis in the world.

Meningitis B accounts for about 90 per cent of cases in this country and is the most deadly of the many strains of the disease. It affects an average of 1,870 people a year, many of them children, and kills one in 10 patients.

One in four sufferers are left with life changing after-effects such as brain damage and limb loss, with children under five most at risk. Meningitis has been known to kill babies and toddlers in under four hours.

This is a landmark moment in the fight against meningitis. Steve Dayman

The new vaccine could protect against three quarters of the strains which cause the disease in the UK.

Scientists have been attempting to develop a broad-ranging Meningitis B vaccine for years and used a revolutionary new approach called reverse vaccinology to create it.

This involves sequencing the genome of the bacteria and identifying proteins that provoke an immune response against a broad range of strains.

Meningitis UK founder Steve Dayman, who lost his baby son to meningitis and septicaemia in 1982, said: “This is a landmark moment in the fight against meningitis – I have waited three decades to hear this.

“It is vital that the vaccine is introduced in the UK immunisation schedule as soon as possible. It will save countless lives and prevent many people enduring the suffering caused by this devastating disease.

“We will be campaigning hard to make the Government introduce it.”

More research needed

Dr Myron Christodoulides, chairman of Meningitis UK’s scientific medical advisory panel and expert in microbiology and infection at the University of Southampton, said: “4CMenB is a crucial breakthrough in the fight against Meningitis B. It has been shown in a clinical programme to induce potentially protective immune responses in infants and adolescents.

“Despite this potential, the vaccine may not provide complete coverage of the Meningitis B strains in the population.

“In the UK, strain coverage is predicted to be approximately 73 per cent but this is based on new methodology and it may be many years until we know how well the vaccine works.

“Thus, to achieve even higher coverage, new research is still urgently needed to find additional proteins that can be used for developing more broadly-protective vaccines.”