Investigational RSV Vaccine for Seniors Demonstrates Efficacy and Safety

Going into the seasonal virus time of year, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is predicted to play a large role in hospitalizations and has already been doing so within the pediatric patient population as hospitals in some areas of the country are experiencing over capacity.

Seniors are another at-risk population for RSV and without any therapeutic protection against it they remain vulnerable to severe RSV. As such, one area of interest in this area has been prophylaxis and the development of RSV vaccines.

One vaccine making its ways through clinical trials is the RSV Prefusion F Protein Candidate Vaccine (RSVPreF3 OA), which has shown promise as it has gone through clinical trials. Earlier this year, the vaccine manufacturer, GSK, presented data and stated the results were “statistically significant and clinically meaningful efficacy in adults aged 60 years and above.”

During ID Week, Michael Ison, MD, MS, professor of the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Organ Transplantation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, presented data on the vaccine in this patient population in this late breaking abstract, “Respiratory Syncytial Virus Prefusion F Protein Candidate Vaccine (RSVPreF3 OA) is Efficacious in Adults ≥ 60 Years of Age.”

“What we were able to demonstrate is a significant vaccine efficacy for our primary outcome, which was RSV lower-tract disease,” stated Ison in an interview with Contagion at the conference. “We were also able to demonstrate significant vaccine efficacy in patients in prevention of RSV acute respiratory infection and severe lower-tract disease. Interestingly the vaccine held against RSV A and RSV B, was consistent in patients with and without comorbid conditions and across most of the age groups that we looked at.”

Ison see these investigational vaccines as potential game changers for this population. “We are at the cusp of an era where we are going to have vaccines that prevent RSV—something we haven’t had up until this point.”

During the interview, Ison discussed the findings, safety profile, and the timeline that looks at potential vaccine approval.