§ Lord HolmPatrickasked Her Majesty's Government:
In what ways they contribute to, and what progress is being made in, research into meningitis, 152WA particularly the meningococcal virus, in view of the number of fatalities it causes among the young.
§ Baroness Jay of PaddingtonThe main agency through which the Government support medical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council (MRC). The MRC is an independent body which receives its grant-in-aid from the Office of Science and Technology, which is part of the Department of Trade and Industry. The council is always willing to consider for support soundly based new scientific proposals in competition with other applications. As regards research into meningitis, the MRC is currently providing support for two MRC units and funding 12 research grants at a cost of £2.3 million in 1995–96. The Department of Health's Policy Research Programme (PRP) recently commissioned a study entitled Phase 2 evaluation of meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccines in UK children. The study is being carried out by the Public Health Laboratory Service at a total cost of over £1 million. In addition, the PRP has funded studies entitled Phase 2 clinical trial of candidate meningococcal vaccines (£197,581) and Acquisition of meningococcal in marine commando recruits (£93,478).
The National Health Service Research and Development Programme is currently funding, at a cost of £80,000, a study in North Thames Region entitled Neurodevelopmental examination at nine years of age of children who suffered neonatal meningitis.
Following its recent research review, one of the objectives of the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR) is to identify and characterise antigens that may have potential for inclusion in vaccines against group B meningococcal disease and pneumococcal disease or for the diagnosis and immunotherapy of these diseases. The Department of Health is currently funding two studies within this objective, Meningococcal antigens and pneumococcal antigens, at an estimated cost of £185,000 in 1997–98. Other studies within this objective are being taken forward by the National Meningitis Trust and the World Health Organisation, in collaboration with the Department of Health.