Aeras Starts New Tuberculosis Vaccine Trial

The clinical trial is the first to test the vaccine in humans following pre-clinical studies in latently infected animals.

Non-profit product development partnership Aeras has launched a Phase I clinical trial of a new candidate tuberculosis vaccine against the latent form of the disease. The vaccine is being developed by Aeras and Statens Serum Institut (SSI).

The clinical trial is the first to test the vaccine in humans following pre-clinical studies in latently infected animals.

The trial will involve 25 adults, both with and without latent tuberculosis, and will be conducted by the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) at its field site in Worcester, Western Cape, South Africa.

In pre-clinical trials the vaccine demonstrated no safety concerns, and was also shown to control clinical disease and reacti