Novel Shingles vaccine effective in older adults

New form of vaccine also effective in persons with immunosuppression A herpes zoster subunit vaccine (HZ/su) was associated with a high vaccine efficacy for adults over 50 compared with placebo, according to phase III results of an ongoing controlled trial. Overall efficacy for HZ/su was 97.2% (95% CI: 93.7-99.0, P <0.001) against the shingles virus, reported Himal Lal, MD, of GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines in King of Prussia, Penn., and colleagues. Even when stratified by age group, there was no significant difference in vaccine efficacy (range 96.6%-97.9%). This randomized, double-blinded trial was sponsored by GSK, but the authors note GSK Biologicals was not involved in the conduct of the trial, and “only data that would not risk participant-level unblinding were shared with the authors,” they wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine. Instead of a live-attenuated version of the virus, like the current vaccine (Merck’s Zostavax), the recombinant subunit HZ/su vaccine uses an adjuvant (AS01)...