A team of investigators at Novavax Inc are at the cusp of the revolutionary development of a maternal vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The Maryland-based clinical-stage vaccine company intends to share data in the following weeks on its first clinical trial of an investigative respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine in third-trimester pregnant women. Its findings and eventual successive studies could alter the scope of care for RSV, the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children younger than 1 year old in the US.
The trial—which has been ongoing for 4 years and has assessed the potential vaccine in about 3000 treatment-eligible pregnant subjects in that time—has been carried out by teams comprised of RSV, vaccination, and maternity-care specialists across 11 countries. “This is an incredible number of people working on a trial,” President of Research & Development for Novavax Gregory M. Glenn, MD, told MD Magazine. “And because they’re on the front line, they are extremely excited at the prospect of having a vaccine for infants.”
