Tick-borne encephalitis vaccine (whole virus, inactivated)

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a disease caused by the TBE virus (TBEV), transmitted by ticks from the genus Ixodes. The disease course is variable. Some patients will be asymptomatic or experience a mild febrile illness, while others will experience the full course including neurological symptoms.^A237505 TBE often manifests in a biphasic manner, with patients experiencing a flu-like illness followed by a variable asymptomatic period and then a second phase characterized by various neurological symptoms falling under the categorizations of meningitis, diffuse/focal meningoencephalitis, and meningoencephalomyelitis.A237505, A237520 While some patients recover fully following neurological TBE, neurological sequelae can last for years and rare chronic forms of the disease have also been noted.^A237520 Due to a paucity of effective safe and effective acute therapeutic agents, vaccination remains the most important defence against TBE in endemic areas.^A237520

TICOVAC (also known as TicoVac or FSME-IMMUN) was the first approved vaccine against TBE in Europe, first approved in 1976.A237520, A237525 A second very similar vaccine, Encepur, followed in 1991.^A237520 Both vaccines are based on formaldehyde-inactivated whole virus.A237520, L36050 Although TICOVAC was originally based on a master seed virus passaged in mouse brain and then propagated in chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells, since the 1990's, the whole process has been carried out in CEF cells only.^A237520

Originally developed by Baxter International Inc., TICOVAC was subsequently acquired by Pfizer Inc. in 2014.^L36120 TICOVAC was granted FDA approval on August 13, 2021.^L36050