FDA Greenlights Merck’s New Pneumonia Shot for Adults 

FDA Greenlights Merck's New Pneumonia Shot for Adults. Credit | Shutterstock
FDA Greenlights Merck's New Pneumonia Shot for Adults. Credit | Shutterstock

United States: On Monday, the FDA okayed a new vaccine called pneumococcus from Merck for combating a bacterium that contributes to the serious illness and pneumonia, a lung, according to the pharmaceutical firm. 

More about the news 

Merck’s shot referred to as Capvaxive targets this bacterium in 21 strains to protect against a severe form of pneumococcal disease that has the tendency of spreading to other body parts hence causing pneumonia. 

It is the first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine developed to target adults only, and the company said that it’s also more protective than other currently available shots, as claimed the drugmaker. 

It is commonly known that healthy adults can be affected by pneumococcal disease. However, patients for whom the potential consequences are most grim are the elderly and patients with chronic or immunocompromising health conditions, particularly the severe or “invasive” form of the illness, as CNBC reported. 

FDA Greenlights Merck's New Pneumonia Shot for Adults. Credit | Shutterstock
FDA Greenlights Merck’s New Pneumonia Shot for Adults. Credit | Shutterstock

The serious conditions that can result from invasive pneumococcal disease include meningitis, which is an infection that affects the meninges – tissues surrounding the brain and spinal cord and bacteremia, which is an infection that occurs in the bloodstream. 

Invasive pneumococcal disease can lead to meningitis, an infection that causes inflammation in the area surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and an infection in the bloodstream called bacteremia. 

What more do the experts have to say? 

According to Heather Platt, Merck’s product development team lead for the newly cleared vaccine, “If you have chronic lung disease, even asthma, you have a higher risk of getting sick with pneumococcal disease, and then being in the hospital, losing out on work,” as CNBC reported. 

“Those are things that have a real impact on adults and children, their quality of life,” Platt added. 

More than 150,000 Americans are transferred to hospitals suffering from pneumococcal pneumonia every year, as Platt mentioned. 

Moreover, as Merck said, the death count from the more serious form of the disease is maximum among those adults who are 50 and above. 

Still, the single-dose vaccine won’t be available for patients even after the FDA gives its approval to the company. An outside group that guides CDC operations is scheduled to convene on June 27 to consider which groups should be vaccinated, as CNBC reported. 

Merck Phrma CEO, Richard Platt recalled his company’s preparedness by stating that Merck will back the decision of this committee and promised to make the vaccines available before the end of the summer.