Serum meningococcal meningitis vaccine achieves WHO prequalification

New Delhi: Serum Institute of India (SII) on Wednesday said its vaccine to protect against the five predominant causes of meningococcal meningitis in Africa has been prequalified by the World Health Organisation.

MenFive has been developed through a 13-year collaboration between Serum and PATH, a global nonprofit, with crucial funding from the UK government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

WHO prequalification, which ensures a vaccine meets strict international quality, safety, and efficacy standards, was supported by extensive clinical studies in The Gambia, India, and Mali.

Importantly, prequalification allows MenFive to be procured by United Nations agencies and Gavi, the vaccine alliance.

"As the first conjugate vaccine to safeguard against the five predominant causes of this deadly disease, MenFive offers hope for a future free from annual outbreaks and epidemics in the African meningitis belt," SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said in a statement.

The vaccine protects against meningococcal serogroups A, C, W, Y, and X and is designed to eliminate annual meningitis outbreaks and epidemics in the African meningitis belt -- a string of 26 countries from Senegal and The Gambia in the west to Ethiopia in the east.

It is also the only vaccine that prevents meningitis caused by meningococcal group X, a pathogen increasingly implicated in meningitis outbreaks in Africa.