Current status and challenges of meningococcal vaccines development in China

Vaccination is the most effective and economical way to prevent meningococcal meningitis. In the past few decades, with widespread use of meningococcal vaccines, the incidence of meningococcal meningitis has dropped significantly. There are some vaccines available in Chinese markets, of which mainly included groups A, C, W, and Y monovalent and multivalent polysaccharide meningococcal vaccines (MPV), group A and C polysaccharide meningococcal conjugated vaccines (MPCV-AC), and meningococcal groups A and C and haemophilus b conjugate vaccine (MPCV-AC-hib). With the nearly 50 years of development of meningococcal vaccines in China, significant achievements have been made in vaccine production, quality control, and related research, but the burden of meningococcal disease is still underestimated; the meningococcal vaccine immunization strategy has not been perfected; meningococcal vaccines from different manufacturers have inconsistent immunization procedures and no group B meningococcal vaccines are available in the market. Therefore, it is suggested that meningococcal monitoring methods should be continuously improved and research on meningococcal disease burden should be carried out for facilitating the improvement of meningococcal vaccine immunization procedures and strategy. Furthermore, considering the serogroup highly variable and antigen drift characteristics of Neisseria meningitides, a vaccine with longer immunity and better protection effect should be developed by using genetic recombination and other technologies.