More vaccine news

PHILADELPHIA—The news continued to be good on the vaccine front as GSK announced that new data from a Phase III European trial of its oral rotavirus vaccine candidate Rotarix suggested the vaccine gave good protection against the five most common rotavirus types circulating around the world. Causing significantly gastrointestinal difficulties in small children and infants in the developed world, rotaviral infections are particularly debilitating in the developing world, where they kill more than 600,000 children each year.

"These data are important because they confirm that immunization with two doses of the rotavirus candidate vaccine could provide broad protection against rotavirus gastroenteritis caused by emerging types in addition to those that are already commonly circulating," says Dr. David Bernstein, director of infectious diseases at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

GSK's BLA for the candidate is under review by the US FDA. The findings of the European study were published in The Lancet.