A new vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has shown “exceptional” efficacy in advanced clinical trials, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has announced.
GSK said its vaccine had shown 82.6 per cent overall efficacy against the disease in a Phase III study, offering hope that a large-scale rollout could prevent thousands of fatalities.
RSV is a leading cause of pneumonia in toddlers and the elderly and causes around 14,000 hospitalisations and 8,000 deaths in the UK each year. However, its complex molecular structure has hampered efforts to develop a vaccine.
Older adults are at particularly high risk for severe disease due to age-related decline in immunity and underlying conditions. It generally causes cold-like symptoms, such as a dry cough, a fever and a sore throat.
The trial, which involved roughly 25,000 adults aged 60 and over, showed the vaccine was 94.1 per cent effective against severe lower respiratory tract disease associated with an RSV infection, GSK said.
In trial participants with pre-existing conditions, the GSK vaccine was shown to be 94.6 per cent effective, while in adults aged 70 to 79 it was 93.8 per cent effective, the company said.
Tony Wood, GSK chief scientific officer, said: “These are truly exceptional results given that today RSV remains one of the major infectious diseases without a vaccine, despite over 60 years of research.
“We believe that with the high vaccine efficacy demonstrated in this pivotal trial, our vaccine candidate has the potential to help reduce the significant global burden of RSV-associated disease in older adults, including those at the greatest risk of severe outcomes due to their age or underlying comorbidities.”
It comes after US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer also revealed positive Phase III data on its rival RSV vaccine in older adults in August.
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The efficacy of the vaccine against against RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness with two or more symptoms was 66.7 per cent, while efficacy against severe disease defined by three or more symptoms was 85.7 per cent, the company said.
Two other pharmaceutical companies — Johnson & Johnson and Moderna — are also currently trialling their own RSV vaccine.
