GSK has announced a partnership with the UK Dementia Research Institute and Health Data Research UK to explore a potential link between its shingles vaccine and a reduced risk of dementia.
The research collaboration, which will take four years to complete, will use population-level electronic health data from the NHS to assess the impact of GSK’s recombinant zoster vaccine Shingrix on dementia risk reduction.
More than 55 million people worldwide are currently living with dementia, a neurodegenerative disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out simple tasks.
Shingrix is indicated for the prevention of shingles in adults aged from 50 years, as well as those aged 18 years and over who are at an increased risk of developing the condition.
Several retrospective observational studies have already demonstrated a potential association between shingles vaccines, Shingrix, and a reduced risk of dementia. However, GSK said these studies are “susceptible to unmeasured confounding factors and determining causal association has not been possible”.
The “first-of-its-kind” EPI-ZOSTER-110 study will look at de-identified health data from around 1.4 million people aged 65 to 66 years in the UK, some of whom have been vaccinated with Shingrix and some who have not.
GSK’s chief scientific officer, Tony Wood, said: “The UK’s national scale health data resources provide a significant opportunity for cutting-edge research.
“We hope this world-class research collaboration will not only answer key questions to help reduce dementia risk but also pave the way for future data-led research to unravel the underlying causes of complex diseases so we can get ahead of them.”
If successful, the study could “serve as a blueprint for population level health data research models” and “[reinforce] the UK’s position as a leading destination for scientific research,” according to GSK.
Siddharthan Chandran, director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, said: “Through cross-disciplinary collaboration that combines cutting-edge research capabilities with data at scale, we hope to showcase the potential of UK health data to improve not only our fundamental understanding of dementia but to identify potential interventions that could have a transformational impact.”