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Chasing Pfizer, GSK’s 5-in-1 meningococcal vaccine delivers phase 3 trial win

Nearly three years after dosing the first patient in a phase 3 trial, GSK has now reported positive results from the trial of its much-anticipated combination meningitis vaccine.

The shot, a combination of GSK’s approved vaccines Bexsero and Menveo, targets meningitis and blood poisoning caused by the A, B, C, W, and Y groups of meningococcal bacteria.

The serogroups A, B, C, W and Y cause nearly all invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) cases globally, GSK said in a statement. As it stands now in the U.S., protection from all five groups requires four injections from two separate vaccines.

But GSK is looking to change that with its two-dose shot, which is administered six months apart.

GSK said that the vaccine candidate met endpoints in the trial, which enrolled healthy people between 10 and 25 years of age. The vaccine matched up to Bexsero and Menveo, eliciting a “clinically meaningful immune response.”

The new data comes amid a race with Pfizer. The rivals started their phase 3 meningitis vaccine combination trials only two months apart in the summer of 2020, but Pfizer unveiled its positive data last year. The FDA is set to decide on Pfizer’s pentavalent candidate in October.

GSK’s jab was still in phase 2 back in 2016, when GlobalData expected it to debut in 2020 and grow to $435 million in sales by 2025.