A new vaccine giving protection against the most common form of meningitis, with the potential to save 200 lives a year in Britain, has shown great promise in a trial. Results presented at a conference in Austria yesterday show that the vaccine, tested on 150 British babies living in the Oxford area, produces a strong immune response.

This shows that it will protect against the three strains that were used to make up the vaccine. Meningitis B is caused by many strains, however, so the next step will be to see how broad the protection is.

The vaccine, made by Novartis, was given to the babies in three doses — at two, four and six months — with a booster at 12 months.

To produce the widest possible coverage, the vaccine contains many proteins taken from the surface of the bacteria responsible for the disease. A total of 85 strains were studied to identify the proteins, or antigens, most likely to give broad coverage.

Ray Borrow, head of the vaccine evaluation department at Manchester Royal Infirmary, who helped to organise the study, said: “The prospect of one vaccine that protects infants worldwide against meningococcal serogroup B would be a key achievement in global disease-prevention of our time.

“These new findings tell us that the vaccine is likely to kill strains that contain the vaccine's antigens.”

In the trial, the immune response of the vaccine was tested against three strains of meningitis B. The results showed that one month after the third dose, the levels of subjects achieving a protective immune response against the three strains were 89, 96 and 85 per cent. The booster increased the relative response rates to 100, 98 and 93 per cent.

Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, who helped to run the study, said these preliminary results were encouraging.

“The problem with producing a vaccine against meningitis B is that there are so many different strains. These initial results from the UK show that the vaccine induces an immune response against strains containing the vaccine components. The next step is to find how broad these responses are against other strains that cause disease.

“There is still a long way to go but a vaccine that gave broad protection against meningitis B would be hugely significant. Meningitis B causes the most cases and the most deaths from meningitis currently in the UK — and around the world its effects are devastating.”

Jörg Reinhardt, chief executive of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, said: “There remains a medical need for an effective vaccine to prevent meningitis B infections and our commitment to developing new vaccine technologies may soon provide a broad spectrum meningitis B vaccine.”

The vaccine has gone into its final, phase III trial.

Babies in Britain are already vaccinated against meningitis C and Haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium that can also cause meningitis. The new vaccine was administered at the same time as these two proven vaccines.

— A hayfever vaccine that protects against grass pollen has also shown good results in its final trial. The benefit of the vaccine - when compared with a placebo, and using data only from patients who completed daily diaries of their symptoms - was a drop in symptoms and use of medicine by more than a quarter. The trial involved more than 1,000 people. Allergy Therapeutics, the manufacturer, said it would submit data for approval by European regulators early in 2009.

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