Total cohort in phase 3 ZOE-70 was 13,163 aged 70 or older, vaccine efficacy of 89.8%
89% effective at preventing shingles in older people for at least 10 years
[Newsmp]
A new paradigm for a shingles vaccine.
Amid the steep increase in the incidence of shingles due to the rapid population aging, a shingles vaccine that has proven more than 90% of efficacy in clinical studies will be released.
GSK Korea (general manager and CEO of Korean subsidiary, Rob Kempton) held a press conference at Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul on the 15th to commemorate the launch of Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, in Korea.
Shingles results from a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox.
Shingles is expressed in the form of chickenpox in infants and children and adolescents and is then latent in the ganglion, then proliferates and expresses in the form of shingles when the immune system worsens.
In the early stages of shingles, blisters occur on one side of the body starting with cold symptoms, and various complications such as postherpetic neuralgia and facial paralysis appear.
Depending on the location of occurrence, if the ocular nerve or cranial nerve is invaded, it causes serious diseases such as vision loss or nervous system meningitis, which may lead to death, and recently, studies have also been reported that it affects stroke or dementia.
In addition, older patients have a higher risk of developing complications, and even young people have a significant increase in the incidence when immunity is reduced such as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, cancer, HIV infection and rheumatism.
If chronic pain appears as a complication after shingles, the quality of life decreases due to sleep disorders as well as daily life.
Recently, the incidence rate has been reported to be increasing rapidly due to the global population aging and improved awareness of shingles, and there is a possibility that COVID-19 also affects the incidence or severity of shingles.
However, the vaccine efficacy of the shingles vaccine available in Korea so far is about 70% in adults 50 or older, and only 51% for those 60 or older, and vaccine efficacy drops to about 21% after about 10 years.
Although the effect of reducing the risk of postherpetic neuralgia by 67% has been reported, it cannot be inoculated to severely immunocompromised people under the age of 50 because it is a live vaccine.
In this regard, professor Yoon Young-kyung of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Korea University Anam Hospital introduced the burden of shingles at a press conference and stressed that prevention is the best because after the onset of shingles, only pain mitigating treatment is possible rather than a complete cure.
“Existing vaccines have a lower efficacy in the elderly and a lower effectiveness over time,” Yoon said. “Especially, it was contraindicated for severely immunocompromised patients, for whom shingles prevention is the most important, so an alternative was needed.”
GSK's newly introduced Shingrix is the first and only recombinant inactivated vaccine in Korea, proving a 97.2% efficacy compared to the non-vaccinated group in major clinical studies (ZOE-50, ZOE-70), and more than 90% of the elderly 70 years and above.
Moreover, in a long-term follow-up study, Shingrix maintains protection of close to 90% (89%) against shingles for at least 10 years after vaccination.
Shingrix prevented postherpetic neuralgia by 91.2% in adults aged 50 years and older, 88.8% in adults aged 70 years and older, and other complications by 93.7% in adults aged 50 years and older, and 91.6% in adults aged 70 years and older.
There was no difference in response rates in patients who had previously received live vaccines or patients who had developed shingles, and this effect was also not affected by age.
Furthermore, Shingrix has demonstrated efficacy or immune response in various clinical trials for immunocompromised patients aged 18 years or older, including patients with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, blood cancer, kidney transplant, solid cancer and HIV infection.
“The vaccination rate of the shingles vaccine in Korea is about 35% in adults over the age of 50, and more than 65% require vaccination or re-vaccination,” said Rob Kempton, a general manager and CEO of GSK Korea. “Despite the fact that immunocompromised persons aged 18 years and older are at greater risk of suffering from shingles and its complications, there was no suitable vaccine available for these patients.”
Kempton added, “I am delighted to announce the launch of Shingrix, which will open a new paradigm in addressing unmet needs in the prevention of shingles in Korea.”
