Global Security Newswire

A U.S. panel said yesterday that anthrax vaccinations for military personnel and others should involve five doses injected into a recipient's muscle tissue rather than the customary six doses beneath the skin, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported (see GSN, Jan. 16).

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also recommended altering the schedule for delivering injections of BioThrax, the sole anthrax vaccine approved for use in the United States. The second shot would now be delivered four weeks after the original dose, with follow-up injections given six, 12 and 18 months after the first shot. Under the old guidelines, three shots were given in the first month and three boosters were administered at six-month intervals from the start of the regimen.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the health and human services secretary generally sign off on the panel's recommendations, CIDRAP reported.

The new procedure would only allow anthrax vaccine recipients to receive injections beneath the skin when an intramuscular shot could cause health complications, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said in a statement.

The new guidelines were created using data from a clinical study seeking to reduce the number of injections needed to confer anthrax immunity. The vaccine can produce harmful side effects in recipients.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the new regimen two months ago in response to a request from Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions, which manufactures the vaccine. The company might seek to cut back the number of required shots even further if the ongoing study suggests that would be safe (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy release I).

Meanwhile, a Maryland-based biotechnology firm said that its experimental next-generation anthrax vaccine produced an immune response and few side effects in 415 second-phase test subjects.

SparVax produced varying levels of immune response depending on the timing of injections but not on the size of doses administered, PharmAthene said.

The results suggest that SparVax "may be a promising second-generation [recombinant protective antigen] vaccine candidate" for civilian use, the company said in a statement (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy release II, Feb. 25).