Tuberculosis Vaccine – Product Candidate

• Disease Overview
• Prevalence and Current Treatment
• Product Candidate Description
• Announcements

Disease Overview

Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which manifests primarily as an illness of the respiratory system and is spread by coughing, sneezing and associated respiratory actions. According to the WHO, TB is the world’s second leading cause of death from infectious disease in adults, after HIV/AIDS.

Prevalence and Current Treatment

Approximately 2 billion people were infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis worldwide in 2005, one third of the world’s population. One of ten people infected will develop the active form of the disease during their lifetime. A majority of TB cases occur in individuals between the ages of 25 to 54 years old. Between 1.6 and 2 million die annually worldwide with more than 8 million new cases developing each year. The economic impact of TB in high-disease burden countries is significant. BCG, introduced in 1921, is currently the only available vaccine against tuberculosis.

Product Candidate Description

Our tuberculosis vaccine candidate uses the attenuated Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara, or MVA, as a vaccine delivery platform to present antigen 85A to the immune system. Antigen 85A is a major antigen from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which forms part of the antigen 85 complex. Antigen 85A is highly conserved among all mycobacterial species and is present in all strains of BCG, suggesting that antigen 85A may elicit a strong immune response in individuals previously vaccinated with BCG. The vector, or carrier, MVA is a weakened strain of the smallpox vaccine and a highly attenuated strain of Vaccinia virus which does not replicate in mammalian cells. Another strain of MVA has been administered to more than 120,000 individuals as part of the smallpox eradication program and was found in that program to be safe and well tolerated, despite the deliberate vaccination of high risk groups. Our tuberculosis vaccine has been designed to increase the immune response and protective efficacy in individuals previously vaccinated with BCG. The clinical development of MVA85A is aimed towards the production of an effective TB vaccine for infants, adolescents and HIV-infected individuals to augment the immunity induced by a previous BCG vaccination. The Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium “OETC”, a joint venture between the University of Oxford and Emergent BioSolutions, holds an exclusive license to the vaccine. Emergent has been granted the commercial rights to MVA85A from the OETC.

Announcements