Positive results in the elderly for a Pfizer vaccine against a respiratory virus
On Thursday, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced positive results for the elderly for its vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), against which there is currently no licensed vaccine.
This virus is responsible for bronchiolitis, a respiratory disease that primarily affects infants, but can also be dangerous for older adults, who can develop pneumonia, for example.
More than 177,000 elderly people are hospitalized each year in the United States with RSV, and about 14,000 of them die, according to US health authorities.
The vaccine has been tested on people aged 60 and over in a clinical trial that is still ongoing. According to a preliminary analysis, it was found to be approximately 85% effective in preventing severe cases (three or more symptoms).
Pfizer said it plans to file for permission with the US Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory agencies around the world “in the coming months.”
“Scientists and researchers have worked to develop vaccines against RSV without much success for more than half a century,” Annaliesa Anderson, chief vaccine development scientist at Pfizer, said in a statement. “These findings are an important step in our efforts to help protect against RSV.”
Positive results in the elderly for a Pfizer vaccine against a respiratory virus
The vaccine was well tolerated and did not raise any safety concerns, according to the company, which indicated that these results will be submitted for publication in a scientific journal.
About 37,000 participants have already been recruited for the clinical trial, which is supposed to include 40,000. Half of the people receive the vaccine, which targets two strains of the virus (RSV A and B), and the others are a placebo.
