BCG Vaccine News and Research

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The BCG Vaccine is a vaccine containing bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis, with non-specific immunoadjuvant and immunotherapeutic activities. Although the mechanism of its anti-tumor activity is unclear, immunization with BCG vaccine likely activates a Th1 cytokine response that includes the induction of interferon. Vaccination with BCG vaccine may be immunoprotective against infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Phase 3 study shows STELARA inhibits structural damage in patients with active psoriatic arthritis

New findings from two integrated Phase 3 Janssen Research & Development, LLC (Janssen)-sponsored studies showed treatment with STELARA- (ustekinumab) resulted in significantly greater inhibition of structural damage in patients with active psoriatic arthritis compared with placebo.

29 Oct 2013

BCG asthma effects are lost in adolescence

Any beneficial effects of the neonatal Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine on childhood asthma symptoms and outcomes are likely to be transient, disappearing by adolescence, show follow-up findings from the Manchester Community Asthma Study.

23 Oct 2013

McMaster vaccine offers new hopes for global fight against TB

A tuberculosis vaccine developed at McMaster University offers new hopes for the global fight against tuberculosis.

3 Oct 2013

FDA approves STELARA (Ustekinumab) for treatment of active psoriatic arthritis

Janssen Biotech, Inc., announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved STELARA® (ustekinumab) alone or in combination with methotrexate for the treatment of adult patients (18 years or older) with active psoriatic arthritis.

23 Sep 2013

Imaxio's pro-immunogenic technology used in tuberculosis vaccine phase I clinical study

Imaxio, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in vaccines and genomics, announces today that IMX313, its proprietary pro-immunogenic technology, has been administered for the first time in humans in a tuberculosis vaccine phase I clinical study. The trial is being conducted by the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, England.

3 Sep 2013

Johns Hopkins researchers develop experimental vaccine for TB meningitis

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers working with animals has developed a vaccine that prevents the virulent TB bacterium from invading the brain and causing the highly lethal condition TB meningitis, a disease that disproportionately occurs in TB-infected children and in adults with compromised immune system.

12 Jun 2013

Improving tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis: an interview with Professor Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD

TB is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nearly 9 million people develop TB every year, and TB kills nearly 1.4 million individuals each year. While the incidence of TB has steadily declined in the west, it remains a huge public health problem in many developing countries, with India having the highest burden.

15 Feb 2013

First new TB vaccine in century fails initial testing

The first of a series of new vaccines that have been developed to combat tuberculosis failed to show efficacy compared with placebo in South African infants, show results from a phase II trial.

7 Feb 2013

Experimental TB vaccine does not protect infants, study shows

"Hopes that a much needed new tuberculosis [TB] vaccine was on the way, the first for 90 years, have been dashed by trial results showing it did not protect babies against the disease," the Guardian reports.

6 Feb 2013

TB vaccine candidate trial results are 'landmark' in fight against disease

"Today marks an important landmark for the fight against tuberculosis (TB)," with the publication in the Lancet of clinical trial results showing the TB vaccine candidate MVA85A "was no more effective in protecting infants from developing pulmonary TB than" the standard Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, Peggy Johnston, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes in the foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

6 Feb 2013

High vaccine prices ignored by ‘Decade of Vaccines’ blueprint

Governments meeting at the World Health Organization’s Executive Board (WHO EB) this week must seize the opportunity to improve serious shortcomings in the document that will drive the global community’s vaccines response in the next few years. If they fail to do so, key reasons why children continue to be missed by immunisation programmes will be left unaddressed.

25 Jan 2013

Trial results of first new TB vaccine candidate in 90 years expected next year

"Researchers will find out early next year whether the first new vaccine against tuberculosis [TB] for 90 years protects against a disease that was once neglected but is now resurgent worldwide," Financial Times reports.

18 Oct 2012

STELARA effectively reduces signs and symptoms of active psoriatic arthritis

Patients with active psoriatic arthritis receiving the interleukin (IL)-12/23 inhibitor STELARA (ustekinumab) experienced significant improvements in signs and symptoms of the disease, according to new findings presented today from a Janssen Research & Development, LLC, (Janssen)-sponsored investigational study.

6 Jun 2012

Einstein receives NIH grant to create new vaccine against TB

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University a five-year, $5.9 million grant to develop a new vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), including the toughest-to-treat forms of the disease known as multi drug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant. The grant will build on a new approach to TB vaccine design that is based on genetically altered Mycobacterium smegmatis, which is closely related to the bacterial species (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that causes TB in humans.

1 Jun 2012

Combination of vitamin D and BCG vaccine improves bladder cancer survival

The tuberculosis vaccine is often used as a treatment for bladder cancer, and adding vitamin D might improve the vaccine's effectiveness, according to new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center presented today at the American Urological Association annual meeting.

22 May 2012

BuruliVac project getting closer to a vaccine

During a meeting in Lisbon, the partners of the BuruliVac research consortium found the project to be running smoothly, and getting closer to a vaccine against Buruli ulcer, a disfiguring and mutilating disease that causes a lot of suffering and now is difficult to treat. Several vaccine candidates work well in mice and are ready for further testing on blood of patients; one is ready for testing in mice.

19 Apr 2012

Emergent receives NIAID grant to advance development of MVA85A TB vaccine

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. today announced that it has received a multi-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, to advance the development of MVA85A, a candidate vaccine against tuberculosis.

23 Mar 2012

Bill Gates meets MTBVAC TB vaccine researchers in Spain

On 21 February Bill Gates met with Dr. Carlos Martin of the University of Zaragoza and members of his team in Madrid, Spain. The scientists are working on the development of MTBVAC, a new vaccine against tuberculosis (TB). Gates showed great interest in the scientific background of MTBVAC, the most advanced vaccine based on attenuation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

5 Mar 2012

Study shows decline in number of TB cases across America during 2009

The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the U.S. is reported as being on the decrease, however untreated infected people act as a reservoir for disease. Any pool of the world's population harboring this disease gives cause for concern, especially since the BCG vaccine is only 70-80% effective at best. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Public Health, shows that in 2009 the number of cases of TB reported across America was much lower than that recorded in previous years.

7 Nov 2011

Einstein researchers develop tuberculosis vaccine candidate

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report in the September 4 online edition of Nature Medicine that they have developed a tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate that proved both potent and safe in animal studies.

5 Sep 2011