Tuberculosis vaccine being tested in Phase II trial

The only tuberculosis vaccine currently available is already over 90 years old - and is unsatisfactory in terms of its effectiveness. Although it protects young children against developing tuberculosis, it quickly loses its effectiveness and does not protect young people and adults against the infection. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin have now developed an improved vaccine which has been undergoing clinical trials on humans since 2008. The safety and tolerability of the vaccine candidate is being tested in a Phase II trial on infants in South Africa. The results of the preceding Phase I trial have already shown that the vaccine candidate fulfils the relevant safety requirements and that its mechanism of action works.