Novartis’ Bexsero approved following JCVI turnaround

Novartis has received approval from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) for its Bexsero meningitis B vaccine. 

The treatment was initially omitted from the organisation's routine vaccination schedule, but it has since reconsidered its position, boosting the Swiss pharmaceutical firm. 

Bexsero is the only approved jab to prevent the potentially lethal meningitis B condition and it has now been recommended for administration to infants from two months of age.

The treatment was granted approval by the European Medicines Agency in early 2013 and it had been thought the UK would be one of the first nations to take up the drug, with the JCVI's initial decision last July surprising many.

However, Novartis subsequently submitted additional evidence, which has encouraged the authority to reverse its decision. It is thought the vaccine could now be made freely available on the NHS as soon as this summer.

Bexsero has been approved by regulators in Europe, Canada and Australia, and although the US Food and Drug Administration has yet to make a decision, it did permit the vaccination to be administered to students at Princeton University and the University of California following outbreaks of meningitis B.