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Funding Secured for Massive TB Vaccine Trial

A massive and much-anticipated phase 3 trial of an experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccine is set to proceed after funding for it has been secured from two large philanthropies, Spotlight reports.

Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announced they'd be investing a combined $550 million into the trial - around $150 million from Wellcome and the remaining from the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, a nonprofit subsidiary of the BMGF.

The vaccine, called M72/AS01E or just M72, made headlines in September 2018 when it was found to offer 54% protection against pulmonary TB disease in a phase 2B trial. Given that the phase 2B trial was partially conducted in South Africa and the country has substantial TB clinical trial capacity, it is almost certain that some of the 50 trial sites will be in South Africa - although no specific trial sites have yet been announced.

InFocus

Robket / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Tuberculosis researchers (file photo).

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