Safety, immunogenicity and lot-to-lot consistency of a new Bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) in healthy Infants: Results of a Phase III, observer blind, randomized, controlled clinical study.

BACKGROUND: Poliomyelitis infection continues to be endemic in few countries despite rigorous efforts for eradication. A new Bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (BBio bOPV) was tested in a Phase III Clinical study. METHODS: An observer blind, randomized, controlled clinical study was conducted comparing BBio bOPV with a licensed bOPV (SII bOPV). Initially in Part 1, 40 children 5-6 years of age were given a single dose of either vaccine in 1:1 ratio. In Part 2, 1080 infants of 6-8 weeks of age were received in 1:1:1:1 ratio one of the 3 lots of BBio bOPV or SII bOPV at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age. Blood samples were collected to assess neutralizing antibody responses against Polio Type 1 and 3 viruses. Safety of the vaccines were recorded. RESULTS: All children were seroprotected against both Type 1 and Type 3 polioviruses post-vaccination. More than 96% of the infants demonstrated seroconversion as well as seroprotection against both types of polioviruses. The geometric mean titres (GMT) for Type 1 and Type 3 antibodies were comparable between the groups. The 3 lots of BBio bOPV generated similar GMTs of Type 1 and Type 3 antibodies. In total 387 participants reported at least one adverse event and 18 serious adverse events. None of these events were vaccine related. CONCLUSIONS: The new bOPV vaccine demonstrated immunogenicity that was non-inferior to a licensed bOPV vaccine. Consistency in immune response by 3 consecutively manufactured lots was also demonstrated. The vaccine did not cause any adverse event. Clinicaltrials.gov.identifier: NCT02766816.

Preclinical safety and immunogenicity evaluation of a nonavalent PorA native outer membrane vesicle vaccine against serogroup B meningococcal disease.

BACKGROUND: An improved nonavalent PorA native outer membrane vesicle vaccine was developed with intrinsic adjuvating activity due to presence of less-toxic (lpxL1) LPS. In the present study, the safety and immunogenicity of this next-generation NonaMen vaccine were evaluated following repeated vaccination in rabbits and mice. METHODS: A repeated-dose toxicology study was performed in rabbits. Immunogenicity of next-generation NonaMen was evaluated by determining the serum bactericidal antibody (SBA) titers against meningococcal serogroup B strains containing several PorA subtypes. Release of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL-6), by the human monocytic cell line (MM6) was measured to estimate pyrogenic activity. RESULTS: No toxicologically relevant findings were noted in vaccinated rabbits receiving plain next-generation NonaMen. In agreement, next-generation NonaMen induced reduced amounts of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, IL-6, released by human monocyte cell line. In both rabbits and mice, next-generation NonaMen induced high SBA titers against all tested MenB strains regardless of whether or not aluminium phosphate adjuvant is used. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that next-generation NonaMen is a safe vaccine with the potential to develop a broadly protective immune response and encourage the start of the first clinical studies.

Improving the cellular pertussis vaccine: increased potency and consistency.

Although Europe, Canada and the US have switched from cellular to acellular pertussis vaccines, most developing countries will continue to use the more cost effective cellular vaccine. Consistency of production however is the typical problem inherent to cellular vaccines. Optimising the production process of cellular pertussis bulk suspensions using product potency as a measure is not possible, since the mandatory animal test to measure potency has little discriminatory power. To circumvent this problem, this study focussed on measuring process parameters related to consistency and potency instead, even though the extent of those relationships could not be quantified. Critical evaluation and modification of individual process steps lead to 2 optimised production processes, NVP-96 and NVP-THIJS. These were compared to the original NVP production process in terms of antigen and biomass content, potency, toxicity and immunogenicity in mice. The batch to batch variation for both optimised products was clearly less than the original product for all parameters tested. The biomass content of the NVP-THIJS product was 15% lower than that of the NVP-96 product, while the immunogenicity in mice was twofold to threefold higher. The stability of the NVP-THIJS product remained higher than the NVP-96 product over a period of 2 years, while the decline of the potency of both suspensions was comparable.