TB vaccine enters new clinical trials

The world's leading candidate for a tuberculosis vaccine, developed at the University of Oxford, is to enter Phase IIb proof-of-concept clinical trials, making it the first TB candidate vaccine for more than 80 years to get to this advanced stage of clinical trials in infants. More than two billion people are infected with tuberculosis (TB) - approximately one out of every three people on the planet - and 1.8 million die annually from the disease. Oxford researchers have developed a promising new vaccine against TB. The Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium Ltd, a joint venture between the University of Oxford and Emergent BioSolutions Inc, is taking the vaccine forward. The announcement of the next phase of trials was made today  by the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, the Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium Ltd, Isis Innovation, the Wellcome Trust and the University of Cape Town (UCT). The study will be conducted in South Africa, around 100 km from Cape Town, by the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) of UCT. A new vaccine is urgently needed, as BCG is currently the only available vaccine against TB, and provides only variable protection against pulmonary tuberculosis, which accounts for most of the worldwide disease burden.