Sanofi's MenQuadfi vaccine received European Commission approval for preventing invasive meningococcal disease in certain age groups.

MenQuadfi can now be used in Europe for vaccinating adults and children at least 12 months old against invasive meningococcal disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroups A, C, W and Y.

More than 3,000 people were infected with the bacterium in 2018, half of whom were exposed to serotypes C, W and Y, according to Thomas Triomphe, head of the company's vaccines division, Sanofi Pasteur.

The EC approval was based on data from seven phase 2 and phase 3 studies, which enrolled more than 6,300 participants in total. The approval also follows a recommendation from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.

MenQuadfi, which is already approved in the U.S., is anticipated to be available in several European countries from 2021.

Paris-based Sanofi, which has been making vaccines for over 100 years, is also conducting phase 3 trials to evaluate MenQuadfi in infants from six weeks of age.