New and Improved Pneumonia Vaccine in Development

In the past 15 years, the number of children killed by pneumonia has been cut in half. This can be attributed to better access to antibiotics and improved nutrition, but also better vaccines. A recent MedicalXpress article says there’s a new vaccine in development that could drop the mortality rate even lower. The vaccine targets dozens of additional strains of S. pneumonia and can predict future versions of the bacteria linked to pneumococcal disease.

Current vaccines address 23 of the most deadly forms of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacterium that causes pneumonia. These vaccines completely remove bacteria from the body, but some of these bacteria are beneficial to one’s health. The new vaccine can decipher between good and bad bacteria and only attack that which breaks away from a colony to cause illness. Abcombi Biosciences, a University at Buffalo spinoff, will launch the vaccine. Abcombi was accepted into Johnson & Johnson’s Toronto-based incubator last year.