Mosquirix, otherwise known as the RTS,S vaccine, is the first against a parasitic infection in humans.<\/p>\n
Dr Ripley Ballou, head of research at GSK vaccines, said: “This is a hugely significant moment. I’ve been working on this vaccine for 30 years and this is a dream come true.”<\/p>\n
The company has not revealed the price of the vaccine, but has pledged not to make a profit from it.<\/p>\n
It has been designed specifically to combat malaria infection in children in Africa and will not be licensed for travelers.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, final results of a clinical trial in seven African countries yielded mixed results.<\/p>\n
The best protection was among children aged five to 17 months who received three doses of the vaccine a month apart, plus a booster dose at 20 months.<\/p>\n
In this group, cases of severe malaria were cut by a third over four years.<\/p>\n
But the effectiveness of the vaccine waned over time, making the booster shot essential.<\/p>\n
Without a booster the vaccine did not cut the rate of severe malaria over the trial period.<\/p>\n
And disappointingly, the jab did not prove very effective in protecting young babies from severe malaria.<\/p>\n
This presents a dilemma for the WHO, which will decide in October whether the vaccine should be deployed, because it is not nearly as effective as scientists would have hoped.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, it had been hoped the jab could be administered at six, 10 and 14 weeks, along with other childhood vaccines.<\/p>\n
But the results suggest the jabs need to be started later, which would involve a huge amount of organisation and extra cost as it is outside the childhood vaccine schedule.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the trial results show it is crucial that children receive all four doses of the jab in order to benefit.<\/p>\n
But even a partially effective malaria vaccine could have a role to play in countries with very high rates of disease.<\/p>\n
GSK began research on a malaria vaccine 30 years ago and the first trials in Africa began in 1998.<\/p>\n
In 2001 a partnership was established between GSK and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with the aim of accelerating development of malaria vaccines.<\/p>\n
In 2009 11 centres began recruiting 16,000 children in seven sub-Saharan African countries: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.<\/p>\n
Steve Davis, president and CEO of PATH, said: “Today marks a significant scientific milestone for the long-standing partnership to develop a vaccine, yet several more steps remain before a malaria vaccine might reach the young children in Africa who most need protection against this deadly human parasite.”<\/p>\n
The vaccine works by triggering the immune system to defend against the first stages of infection by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite after it enters the bloodstream following a mosquito bite.<\/p>\n
Prof Adrian Hill of the Jenner Institute, Oxford, said he was pleased and encouraged by the EMA’s decision but added that the vaccine was not a “magic bullet”.<\/p>\n
He said: “A bed net is more effective than this vaccine, but nonetheless it is a very significant scientific achievement.<\/p>\n
“I see it as a building block towards much more effective malaria vaccines in years to come.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mosquirix, otherwise known as the RTS,S vaccine, is the first against a parasitic infection in humans. Dr Ripley Ballou, head of research at GSK vaccines, said: “This is a hugely significant moment. I’ve been working on this vaccine for 30 years and this is a dream come true.” The company has not revealed the price […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}