25 Jul 08

A Gambian infant is inoculated as part of a previous MRC study with the MVA85A vaccine.

The world’s leading candidate for a tuberculosis vaccine, developed at Oxford University, is to move into the next stage of development.

A joint venture between the University of Oxford and Emergent BioSolutions Inc has been formed to develop the vaccine. If successful, this would be the first new vaccine licensed to prevent tuberculosis in over 80 years with major implications for control of the worldwide TB epidemic.

The Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium has secured £8 million from the Wellcome Trust and the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation to fund a clinical trial to test the vaccine’s efficacy. The Phase IIb trial will involve 3,000 infants in South Africa and is likely to begin in 2009.

The University of Oxford, through its technology transfer office, Isis Innovation Limited, has exclusively licensed the MVA85A tuberculosis vaccine candidate and related technology to the Consortium. 

The World Health Organization declared TB a global emergency in 1993. About nine million new cases of TB, and nearly two million deaths from TB, are estimated to occur around the world every year.

In the UK, almost 8,500 cases were reported in 2007 with rates of TB remaining at their highest level since the mid 1980s. The main burden by far is borne by London, with over 3,300 cases (39% of the total).

Two aspects of the tuberculosis epidemic present cause for real concern: multi-drug resistant TB has reached record levels worldwide and the rise in HIV has fuelled the number of cases of tuberculosis disease.

Currently, the only vaccine against TB is the BCG vaccine, which is administered to infants throughout the developing world and most of the developed world. However, BCG only provides variable protection against pulmonary tuberculosis and is not effective in adults.

The new vaccine, called MVA85A, has been developed at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, by Dr Helen McShane, a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow, working with Professor Adrian Hill, a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow.

‘I am excited by the prospect of further development of this promising vaccine candidate,’ said Dr. McShane. ‘Curbing tuberculosis is a pressing global health priority, and if achieved could save the lives of millions.’

The vaccine works in tandem with BCG, boosting the immune response already primed by the BCG vaccine. The results of the clinical trials to date show high cellular immune responses in those receiving the MVA85A vaccine candidate following vaccination with BCG.

Under the joint venture agreement, Emergent BioSolutions has the rights to fully commercialise the vaccine, and the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation will have the right to distribute the vaccine in the developing world for humanitarian purposes.

Dr Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said, ‘We have been losing the battle against tuberculosis for too long, as a result of poor diagnostics, protracted treatment regimes, antibiotic resistance and HIV-induced immunosuppression. Conquering this historic enemy has to be one of our highest public health priorities, and developing an effective vaccine is arguably the key to a defensive strategy that will ultimately turn the tide in this insidious war.’