Tetanus and Diphtheria Toxoids Adsorbed

DECAVAC® is a vaccine indicated for active immunization for the prevention of tetanus and diphtheria. DECAVAC vaccine is approved for use in persons 7 years of age and older.

Tetanus and diphtheria are serious diseases caused by bacteria.

Tetanus (lockjaw) causes painful tightening of the muscles, usually all over the body. It can lead to "locking" of the jaw so the victim cannot open the mouth or swallow. Tetanus leads to death in about 1 out of 10 cases.

Diphtheria causes a thick coating in the nose, throat, and airways. It can lead to breathing problems, paralysis, heart failure, or death.

Diphtheria is spread from person to person. Tetanus enters the body through a cut or wound.

The tetanus and diphtheria toxoids vaccine (also called Td) is used to help prevent these diseases in adults and children who are at least 7 years old.

This vaccine works by exposing you to a small dose of the bacteria or a protein from the bacteria, which causes the body to develop immunity to the disease. This vaccine will not treat an active infection that has already developed in the body.

Like any vaccine, the tetanus and diphtheria toxoids vaccine may not provide protection from disease in every person.

Data From Clinical Studies

Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a vaccine cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another vaccine and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. The adverse reaction information from clinical trials does, however, provide a basis for identifying the adverse events that appear to be related to vaccine use and for approximating rates of those events.

In a primary immunization study conducted in Canada, 18 participants, 8 of whom were 6 to 9 years of age and 10 of whom were 17 to 56 years of age, received three doses of TENIVAC vaccine. In four booster immunization studies conducted in either the US or Canada, TENIVAC vaccine was administered to 3,723 participants overall, ranging in age from 11 to 93 years.

In one of these studies, a US multi-center booster immunization study (TDC01), 2,250 adolescents and adults ages 11-59 years of age received TENIVAC vaccine in an open-label design and adults 60 years of age and over were randomized to receive either TENIVAC vaccine (N = 700) or DECAVAC vaccine (US licensed Td manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur Inc.) (N = 701). Vaccine assignment for participants ≥ 60 years of age was unblinded to pharmacists and vaccination nurses, but was blinded to other study personnel and participants. Among participants who received TENIVAC vaccine, overall, 80.4% were Caucasian, 3.3% Black, 5.1% Hispanic, 4.5% Asian and 6.6% other races. Among participants ≥ 60 years of age, the racial distribution was similar for the TENIVAC vaccine and DECAVAC vaccine groups. Among participants who received TENIVAC vaccine, the proportion of participants who were female varied by age group (44.4% of participants 11-18 years of age, 70.1% of participants 19-59 years of age and 62.4% of participants ≥ 60 years of age). Among participants ≥ 60 years of age who received DECAVAC vaccine, 57.6% were female. Nearly all (99.8%) enrolled participants and all participants in the per-protocol immunogenicity population had a reported or documented history of previous immunization against tetanus and diphtheria and, by report, had not received a vaccine containing tetanus or diphtheria toxoid within 5 years prior to enrollment.

In the US multi-center booster immunization study, solicited injection site reactions and systemic adverse events were monitored on diary cards for a subset of participants 11-59 years of age and for all participants ≥ 60 years of age. The incidence and severity of solicited injection site reactions and selected solicited systemic adverse events that occurred within 3 days following vaccination are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Frequency and Severity of Selected Solicited Adverse Events Within 0-3 Days Following TENIVAC Vaccine or DECAVAC Vaccine in a US Study

In the US booster immunization study, among participants ≥ 60 years of age, 7 (1.0%) participants in the TENIVAC vaccine group and 10 (1.4%) participants in the DECAVAC vaccine group experienced a serious adverse event within 30 days following vaccination. During this period, 2 (0.3%) participants 19-59 years of age and no participants 11-18 years of age experienced a serious adverse event following TENIVAC vaccine. Serious adverse events within 30 days following TENIVAC vaccine included localized infection, asthma, colonic polyp, cellulitis, angina pectoris, hip and wrist fracture, cholecystitis, chest pain and cerebrovascular accident.

There were five deaths reported during the study. All of the reported deaths were in participants ≥ 60 years of age and occurred > 30 days post-vaccination: three in the TENIVAC vaccine group (cardiopulmonary arrest; myocardial infarction and septic shock; and unknown cause) and two in the DECAVAC vaccine group (myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure; and liver cancer).

In the primary immunization study (N = 18) in which serious adverse events were monitored for 3 days following each vaccination and in three other booster immunization studies in which serious adverse events were monitored for either four days (N = 347) or one month (N = 426) following vaccination, no serious adverse events were reported.

Data From Post-marketing Experience

The following adverse events have been spontaneously reported during the post-marketing use of TENIVAC vaccine. Because these events are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to vaccine exposure.

The following adverse events were included based on severity, frequency of reporting or the strength of causal association to TENIVAC vaccine:

Lymphadenopathy

Allergic reactions (such as erythematous rash, maculopapular rash, urticaria and pruritus); anaphylactic reaction (bronchospasm and angioedema).

Paresthesia, dizziness, syncope

Guillain Barre syndrome

Vomiting

Myalgia, pain in extremities

Injection site reactions (including inflammation, mass, edema, induration, warmth, pruritus, cellulitis, discomfort)

Fatigue, edema peripheral

Read the entire FDA prescribing information for Tenivac (Tetanus and Diphtheria Toxoids Adsorbed)