Stop TB Partnership

New TB vaccine enters clinical trials

16 October 2012 - Lelystad, the Netherlands - Swiss-medic, the Swiss regulatory authority for medicine, has given the green light for clinical trials of the MTBVAC tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate among adult volunteers.

MTBVAC is a live vaccine based on attenuated Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a strongly weakened version of the bacterium that causes TB. The clinical trials will be performed under the supervision of Professor Francois Spertini of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

"This is the first candidate of this kind ever to be tested in humans," said Dr Jelle Thole, director of the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI). "The start of this clinical trial is a big win for scientists all over Europe."

The MTBVAC vaccine is the product of collaboration between multiple European organizations. The European Commission and Biofabri, a Spanish biopharmaceutical company, provided financing. Professor Brigitte Gicquel at Institute Pasteur in Paris and Professor Carlos Martin of the University of Zaragoza developed the vaccine. Various TBVI partners contributed to the pre-clinical development of the vaccine and TBVI’s special expert teams provided scientific support and developmental expertise.

"Tuberculosis is a killer that claims 7 victims every hour in Europe alone, with particularly drug-resistant strains emerging. That is why the European Union is investing so much to combat this disease," said Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science. "This new vaccine has been under development for more than a decade in many different laboratories in Europe. Few countries could undertake such a sustained effort on their own. It is a good example of the collaborative character of European research."

Professor Spertini believes that the vaccine candidate is very promising. "Because it contains the actual bug that causes TB, we expect it to be much more effective than the existing vaccine," he said. "And because very elegant work has been done to modify and weaken the organism, we expect it to be very safe."