The Discovery and Development of a Novel Vaccine to Protect against Neisseria meningitidis Serogroup B Disease

Abstract

Vaccines have had a major impact on the reduction of many diseases globally. Vaccines targeted against invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) due to serogroups A, C, W, and Y are used to prevent these diseases. Until recently no vaccine had been identified that could confer broad protection against Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MnB). MnB causes IMD in the very young, adolescents and young adults and thus represents a significant unmet medical need. In this brief review, we describe the discovery and development of a vaccine that has the potential for broad protection against this devastating disease.

Keywords: :

• Serogroup B
• Neisseria meningitidis
• vaccine
• factor H binding protein
• serum bactericidal assay with human complement (hSBA)

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

All authors are employed by Pfizer and as such may own Pfizer stock.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Julia Li, Han-Qing Jiang, Kathryn Mason, Lynn Miller, Christine Stokes, Jennifer Obregon, and Deanne Illenberger for technical support; all are employees of Pfizer. The authors also thank Michael Pride, Shite Sebastian, Robert Donald, also employees of Pfizer for their insightful comments associated with this work. This work was funded by Pfizer.