Current pharmaceutical biotechnology
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Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused mainly by members of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. In 2012, the WHO estimated 8.7 million new cases and 1.4 million deaths caused by this disease. ⋯ Much work is therefore ongoing in terms of the development of TB vaccines and more than 10 candidate vaccines are progressing well through the different development stages. The aim of this mini-review is to describe the characteristics of the most promising vaccines, and to give a brief description of some key elements relating to the current and future development of vaccines against TB.