The immunogenicity and sero-efficacy of pneumococcal vaccines

Decisions about which vaccines to use should be made based on good data to make sure the population is well protected against disease.

Pneumococcal disease is a serious illness caused by a bacterial infection that can result in death.
Children in the UK receive one type of pneumococcal vaccine to prevent this disease and the vaccine
in use has been very successful. Another vaccine is used in other countries, and might be a good
option for the UK. From studies in this area, however, there is very little information directly comparing vaccines, so it is difficult to know which is best.

We plan to do a large analysis combining data from multiple pneumococcal vaccine studies in a 'meta-analysis'. We will conduct a meta-analysis of Pfizer studies that directly compared licensed pneumococcal vaccines in randomised head-to-head trials. The primary outcome will be antibody levels measured 4- 6 weeks after vaccination

We aim to show which vaccine produces the highest responses when measured in blood samples in infants and also to show which vaccine protects infants best against infection.

Our results will provide the best comparison of pneumococcal vaccines done so far. This will help the
policy-makers to decide whether to keep the current vaccine or to change. In turn, this will help to continue to
protect the population against disease.