Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced funding, to advance a tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate, M72/AS01E (M72), through a Phase III clinical trial.
If proven effective, M72 could potentially become the first new vaccine to help prevent pulmonary TB, a form of active TB, in more than 100 years.
Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made the announcement at a virtual news conference on Wednesday.
The event featured Trevor Mundel, President of Global Health at the Gates Foundation; Alexander Pym, Director of Infectious Diseases at Wellcome; and Nomathamsanga Majozi, Head of Public Engagement at the Africa Health Research Institute.
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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the only TB vaccine in use today, Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), was first given to people in 1921.
It helps protect babies and young children against severe systemic forms of TB but offers limited protection against pulmonary TB among adolescents and adults.
TB is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, killing about 4,300 people per day, mostly those living in poverty.
In 2021, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB and 1.6 million died.
Up to a quarter of the world’s population is thought to have latent TB, a condition in which a person is infected with the bacterium that causes TB but does not have any symptoms and is at risk of progressing to active TB disease.
To support the M72 Phase III clinical trial, which will cost an estimated US$550 million, Wellcome is providing up to US$150 million and the Gates Foundation will fund the remainder, about US$400 million.
The vaccine, called M72, will be given from Year 2024 to 26,000 young adults in Africa and south-east Asia who have a latent infection with the bacteria that cause TB but no symptoms.
Alexander Pym, the Director of Infectious Disease at Wellcome, said TB was one of the biggest health challenges in the world.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, commended the support by the Gates Foundation and Wellcome to develop a new TB vaccine. (NAN)
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