The EU medicines agency EMA has given the green light to the first vaccine against the so-called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can be used in people over 60 years old as well as in infants.
As the EMA announced in Amsterdam on Friday, it concerns the Abrysvo vaccine from the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer. According to the recommendation of the EMA, the European Commission still has to approve the approval.
Last month, an RSV vaccine from British pharmaceutical company Glaxosmithkline (GSK) was approved in the EU, but only for people over 60.
“Abrysvo is the first RSV vaccine for passive immunization of infants from birth to six months of age after maternal administration of the vaccine during pregnancy,” the EMA said. The antibodies against RSV that the mother forms after vaccination thus reach the growing child’s organism via the placenta and protect it against the virus infection for up to six months after birth.
RSV is a global pathogen that usually causes only mild symptoms. However, it can cause serious respiratory diseases and become dangerous, especially in the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, as well as in newborns and infants. The virus causes more than 270,000 hospitalizations and about 20,000 hospital-related deaths in people aged 60 and over in Europe each year, according to GSK.
After the coronavirus pandemic eased, serious respiratory illnesses had significantly increased again in many countries around the world. In Germany, for example, more newborns and infants than usual had to be treated in clinics for acute respiratory diseases last winter. Experts suspect a catch-up effect after the corona pandemic, in which relatively few children came into contact with RSV. So far, the disease can only be treated symptomatically.
Pfizer said the EMA recommendation is an “important step forward in our efforts to prevent RSV disease in older adults and young children.” Babies are protected at precisely the age “when their risk of serious RSV disease and complications is greatest”.
Analysts say the market for RSV vaccines could exceed $10 billion in the next decade. Other manufacturers such as Moderna are also expected to market RSV vaccines in the near future. (cst/sda/afp)
Source: Blick
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