Hopes for a once-promising malaria vaccine have been disappointed, with a new study showing the experimental drug is only about 30 percent effective at protecting infants from the killer disease.
The three-shot regimen reduced malaria cases by about 30 percent in infants aged 6 to 12 weeks.
The level of protection provided by the vaccine was “unacceptably low”,
according to Dr Jennifer Cohn, a medical coordinator at Doctors Without
Borders who was not linked to the study.
According to details released on Friday, the three-shot regimen reduced
malaria cases by about 30 percent in infants aged 6 to 12 weeks, the target
age for immunization. The research, funded by GlaxoSmithKline, included more
than 6,500 infants in Africa.
GlaxoSmithKline chief executive officer Andrew Witty called the result “a
little frustrating”.
“We... would have liked to have seen higher efficay than we have of course,”
he told a telephone press conference of the Phase III trial results
published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
But he stressed that “this is not a mission we should just walk away from.
This remains the lead and still the most encouraging (malaria) candidate
vaccine.”
Scientists have been working for decades to develop a malaria vaccine, a
complicated endeavor since the disease is caused by five different species
of parasites. There has never been an effective vaccine against a parasite.
Worldwide, there are several dozen malaria vaccine candidates being researched.
In 2006, a group of experts led by the World Health Organization said a malaria vaccine should cut the risk of severe disease and death by at least half and should last longer than one year.
Malaria is spread by mosquitoes and kills more than 650,000 people every year, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa. Without a vaccine, officials have focused on distributing insecticide-treated bed nets, spraying homes with pesticides and ensuring access to good medicines.
Glaxo first developed the vaccine in 1987 and has invested $300 million in it so far.
WHO said it would wait until the trial finishes in 2014 before drawing any conclusions.
Source: agencies
Worldwide, there are several dozen malaria vaccine candidates being researched.
In 2006, a group of experts led by the World Health Organization said a malaria vaccine should cut the risk of severe disease and death by at least half and should last longer than one year.
Malaria is spread by mosquitoes and kills more than 650,000 people every year, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa. Without a vaccine, officials have focused on distributing insecticide-treated bed nets, spraying homes with pesticides and ensuring access to good medicines.
Glaxo first developed the vaccine in 1987 and has invested $300 million in it so far.
WHO said it would wait until the trial finishes in 2014 before drawing any conclusions.
Source: agencies
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