Emergent, Oxford partner on TB vaccine

WASHINGTON One of Britain’s most prestigious universities is collaborating with a drug maker in Rockville, Md., to produce a tuberculosis vaccine.

The University and Oxford and Emergent BioSolutions have formed The Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium. The university has given the consortium an exclusive license for the drug, which the consortium expects to enter phase II clinical trials next year.

Funding for the trials, totaling $16 million, will come from the Rockville-based Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation and the United Kingdom-based Welcome Trust. The trials will take place in Worcester, South Africa, through the University of Cape Town’s South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative.

TB is a bacterial infection that kills almost 2 million people per year.