Novartis study shows efficacy of meningococcal disease drug

Novartis has reported new data on its developmental meningococcal disease vaccine 4CMenB, which illustrates the treatment's versatile and effective performance.

Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that in a recent study, the four-component treatment was able to kill the majority of a group of geographically and genetically diverse meningococcal serogroup B strains.

Of the 124 strains collected from adult patients, 4CMenB was able to combat 85 percent, while the vaccine was also able to counteract 74 percent of the 57 infant strains involved in the trial.

The company said this demonstrates the potential of the vaccine to offer protection to a wide variety of users, including infants and young children, who represent a particularly at-risk patient group.

Andrin Oswald, head of Novartis' vaccines and diagnostics division, said: "These important findings support our innovative approach using multiple novel components in a single vaccine to provide broad coverage against the deadly and unpredictable meningococcal B disease."

Last month, the company reported new data from a trial of another meningococcal disease vaccine, Menveo, demonstrating its effectiveness among infant patients.