The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7443 p303
17 March 2007

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Hepatitis E vaccine effective

A recombinant hepatitis E vaccine has been shown to be effective in a high-risk population (New England Journal of Medicine 2007;356:895).

Vaccine was administered (active or placebo) to 1,794 healthy adults susceptible to hepatitis E infection. Hepatitis E subsequently developed in 69 subjects, of whom 66 were in the placebo group (vaccine efficacy 95.5 per cent, 95 per cent confidence interval 85.6–98.6).

Intention-to-treat analysis revealed a vaccine efficacy of 88.5 per cent (CI 77.1–94.2).