Meningococcal Vaccine Found Effective Against Gonorrhea Again

Recent research assessed whether the off-label use of meningococcal group B vaccines (MBV) was associated with subsequent lower gonorrhea prevalence.

A Research Letter published by the JAMA Network Infectious Diseases on August 31, 2023, concluded the outer membrane vesicle OMV-based MBV was 47% (95% CI, 13%-68%) effective in preventing gonorrhea among recipients aged 18 to 29 years.

These results are consistent with other study findings that OMV-based vaccines offered 31% (95% CI 21-39) protection against gonorrhea.

Two meningococcal vaccines are available in the U.S.: MenB-4C (OMV-based) and MenB-FHbp.

This study's finding is good news since gonorrhea infection rates increased by about 4%, reaching 710,151 in 2022. 

As of September 30, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency have not approved vaccines for preventing gonorrhea infection.

However, the FDA recently granted Fast Track designation for GSK's Neisseria gonorrhea investigational vaccine (NgG) candidate.

GSK announced on June 27, 2023, that Phase II of an ongoing study aims to demonstrate Proof of Concept by assessing the NgG vaccine's efficacy in healthy adults at risk of gonorrhea.

This study started in November 2022 in the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Philippines, and South Africa.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gonorrhea is now the second most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the U.S. Most women infected with gonorrhea do not have any symptoms. 

Other STI vaccine news (herpes, syphilis, HPV, mpox) is posted at this link.