Wyeth's Prevenar EU license extended

The European Union license for Wyeth's conjugate pneumococcal vaccine, Prevenar, has been extended to include additional indications for the active immunization of children up to five years of age against pneumonia and acute otitis media (middle ear infection) caused by the seven pneumococcal serotypes contained in the vaccine.

Until now, the license for Prevenar has primarily reflected the vaccine's efficacy in the prevention of invasive pneumococcal infections such as, meningitis, bacteremia and bacteremic pneumonia, caused by the seven vaccine serotypes.

"The licence extension reflects the importance of the data for Prevenar in helping prevent non-invasive pneumococcal infections," said Vignesh Rajah, Wyeth's medical director in the UK. Prevenar has been shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of radiographically-confirmed pneumonia in children up to two years of age 23.3% in pivotal clinical trials in the USA. Moreover, says Wyeth, recently published new data from the USA has shown a 39% decline in all-cause pneumonia hospital admission rates for children younger than two since the introduction of routine vaccination with Prevenar in 2000.