can be safely incorporated into existing national immunisation
programmes, without interference with commonly used childhood vaccines
such as polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and Haemophilus
influenza type b.
Cristian Loucq, of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) told Good
Health Weekly in a telephone interview last week that investment in
developing malaria vaccines was beginning to pay dividends.
"We are closer than ever before to developing a malaria vaccine for
children in Africa. History has shown that vaccines are the most
powerful tool to control and eliminate infectious diseases. Clearly,
the world urgently needs a safe and effective vaccine to win the war
against this terrible disease."
The vaccine which works alongside standard infant vaccines of WHO’s
Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI), has a favourable safety
profile, and has consistently shown a significant efficacy level. We
can begin to foresee the difference this scientific breakthrough could
make in the lives of millions of African children who suffer and die
from this disease year after year."
In the view of Joe Cohen, a co-inventor of the vaccine and
Vice-president of Research & Development, Emerging Diseases &
HIV at GSK Biologicals. "The energy and motivation levels are at an
all-time high, as the partnership finalizes preparations to launch the
historic phase III trial early next year."
Cohen said results from two new studies, conducted in Kenya and
Tanzania, demonstrated that the vaccine, which reduced the risk of
clinical episodes of malaria significantly over an eight-month
follow-up period, could be the scientific breakthrough that would make
in the lives of millions of African children malari-free.
The studies were earlier presented at the American Society for Tropical
Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) conference and published in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
Results from Phase II studies of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals’
malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S/AS demonstrate that it can provide
significant protection against malaria infection and the progression of
infection to clinical disease. For the first time, RTS,S/AS
administered together with commonly used childhood vaccines has been
shown to have both promising safety profile and efficacy profiles.