Pharmaceutical Business review

Novartis’s meningitis vaccine found effective in Phase III trial

Results of this first head-to-head trial of Menveo compared to Menactra, show that adolescents who were immunized with Menveo generated higher levels of antibodies against all four serogroups. Menveo is an investigational quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine in Phase III clinical development by Novartis Vaccines.

Notably for serogroup Y, among adolescents with low levels of immunity at the time of vaccination, 81% of subjects receiving Menveo generated a protective immune response versus 54% with Menactra, as measured by the hSBA assay.

Keith Reisinger, medical director of Primary Physicians Research, said: “These data are encouraging because they show that Menveo may provide greater protection for the more than eight million infants and adolescents in the US against these four vaccine-preventable serogroups than the currently available vaccine.”