U.S FDA Approved Pfizer’s Pneumococcal Vaccine, PREVNAR 20TM

On Tuesday, Pfizer Inc. announced its FDA approval for PREVNAR 20TM, which is a Pneumococcal 20-valent Conjugate Vaccine enabling prevention of pneumonia, and invasive diseases. These targeted diseases are caused by the contraction of any 20 Streptococcus pneumonia, also simply known as pneumococcus.

The age group determined appropriate for the vaccine is 18 years and above. After the approval announcement on June 08, many events and meetings are anticipated to be conducted, particularly the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) led by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to set up a discussion panel discussing and updating recommendations associated with safe and appropriate distribution and use of pneumococcal vaccines in adults.

PREVNAR 20 consists of capsular polysaccharide conjugates for the previous existing 13 serotypes in the PREVNAR 13. In addition, the vaccine comprises seven additional serotype capsular polysaccharide conjugates. The seven serotypes are critical in causing invasive pneumococcal disease and have been long associated with higher fatality rates, antibiotic resistance, also meningitis.

In the United States, the prevalence of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease (IPD) is dominated by bacteremia and meningitis among the age group of 65 and above; more than half of these are caused by the 20 serotypes in PREVNAR 20.These 20 serotypes of the vaccine are expected to spurge 250,000 cases of IPD, including meningitis, and bacteremia in the United States, along with community-acquired pneumonia anticipating over 10,000 deaths in adults 18 and above.