The European Commission approved an expanded indication for the use of Pfizer's Prevenar 13 (pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine [13-valent, adsorbed]) for the prevention of pneumonia caused by the 13 pneumococcal serotypes in the vaccine in adults aged 18 years and older.

The Summary of Product Characteristics has also been updated to include efficacy data from Pfizer’s landmark Community-Acquired Pneumonia Immunization Trial in Adults (CAPiTA), which demonstrated statistically significant reductions in first episodes of vaccine-type pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), including non-invasive/non-bacteremic CAP, and invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in adults aged 65 and older.

“We welcome the approval of this new indication for Prevenar 13 in the EU, which will enable healthcare professionals to help adults reduce their risk of pneumococcal pneumonia caused by the 13 serotypes in the vaccine. This is particularly important for older adults and those with medical conditions that may make them more vulnerable to this serious, debilitating and potentially deadly disease,” said Rene Reinert, vice president, Pfizer Vaccines Medical and Scientific Affairs, Europe. “Pfizer looks forward to working with vaccine technical committees in Europe to discuss this new indication and the CAPiTA data, as well as potential updates to recommendations for the use of Prevenar 13 in adults.”

Streptococcus pneumoniae, also known as pneumococcus, is the most common bacterial cause of community-acquired pneumonia.Pneumococcal pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death and hospitalization worldwide. Pneumococcal pneumonia can be classified as non-invasive, when bacteria cause infection in the lungs but are not detected in the blood concurrently, or invasive, when bacteria also enter the bloodstream (bacteremic pneumonia) or another normally sterile site in the body. For every one case of invasive pneumococcal pneumonia in adults, it is estimated that at least three cases of non-invasive pneumococcal pneumonia occur. While non-invasive forms of pneumococcal disease are typically more common, the invasive types of disease are generally more severe.

Pfizer conducted the CAPiTA study (Community-Acquired Pneumonia Immunization Trial in Adults) as part of its regulatory commitments to global regulatory authorities. The results have been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration and regulatory agencies in other major markets, including Australia and Canada, for inclusion in the product’s labeling.

This study is one of the largest double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled vaccine efficacy trials ever conducted in older adults. The study achieved its primary and secondary objectives. It involved approximately 85,000 subjects aged 65 years and older and was conducted by Julius Clinical, an academic research organization affiliated with the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) in the Netherlands. Fifty-nine sentinel hospitals were used for the surveillance of CAP and IPD.

With this approval for Prevenar 13, it is now indicated in the EU for active immunization for the prevention of invasive disease and pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults =18 years of age and the elderly. Prevenar 13 was first introduced for use in infants and young children in December 2009 in Europe and is now approved for such use in more than 120 countries worldwide, including the United States and Japan. It is the most widely used pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in the world, and more than 750 million doses of Prevenar 7-valent/Prevenar 13 have been distributed worldwide. In addition, Prevenar 13 is approved for use in adults 50 years of age and older in more than 90 countries, and is also approved in the United States, European Union (EU) and other countries for use in older children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years.