Meningococcal meningitis and sepsis are devastating diseases that can kill children and young adults within hours despite the availability of effective antibiotics. The diseases are caused by Neisseria meningitidis, a Gram negative, capsulated bacterium that has been classified into five major pathogenic serogroups (A, B, C, Y, and W-135) on the basis of the chemical composition of distinctive capsular polysaccharides.

The reported annual incidence of meningococcal disease varies from 0.5 to 10 per 100,000 persons. Currently, there are no vaccines available for prevention of serogroup B N. meningitidis (MenB) disease, which is responsible for 32% of all meningococcal disease in the United States and for 45% to 80% of the cases in Europe. Novartis Vaccine is building on its technical expertise in developing the meningococcal vaccines to develop a recombinant vaccine against serogroup B. Sequence variation of surface-exposed proteins and cross-reactivity of the serogroup B capsular polysaccharide with human tissues have hampered efforts to develop a successful vaccine.

To overcome these obstacles, the entire genome sequence of a virulent serogroup B strain (MC58) was used by Novartis Vaccines to identify vaccine candidates. A total of 350 candidate antigens were expressed in Escherichia coli, purified, and used to immunize mice. The sera allowed the identification of proteins that are surface exposed, that are conserved in sequence across a range of strains, and that induce a bactericidal antibody response, a property known to correlate with vaccine efficacy in humans. Clinical trials are underway in New Zealand with a vaccine against strains of meningococcal B specific to that country.

Broad-coverage meningococcal B vaccine Broad-coverage meningococcal B vaccine: This vaccine, which builds upon Novartis' genomics program, is designed to offer protection against multiple strains of meningococcus B.