First malaria vaccine set to be licensed
The world’s first partially effective malaria vaccine is expected
to be licensed around 2012, according to the authors of an in-depth report examining the malaria product pipeline.
They warn, however, that current high levels of malaria research and
development activity — 16 new malaria vaccine candidates in clinical
trials and six new malaria drugs about to reach the market — is
the result of scientific and technical gaps and a lack of policy co-ordination.
The report’s lead author Mary Moran, of the George Institute for
International Health, Sydney, believes that improved vaccine research
co-ordination and investment decisions could save more than US$20m over
five years and prevent up to 3,000 unnecessary test vaccinations in African
children.
“
The most tantalising finding was that these high-impact policy interventions — and
the resulting savings — are well within reach if donors and developers
can work together”, said Dr Moran. “We need a system to ensure
that fewer and better vaccine candidates enter clinical trials in Africa.”
The authors of the report welcome the arrival of new antimalarials but
point out that donors, purchasers and developing countries now face the
prospect of funding large and expensive studies to determine which of
the many competing products offer the best cost-benefit balance.
They estimate that additional costs for clinical development of the global
malaria vaccine and drug portfolio over the next five years is likely
to be around US$600m.
Malaria vaccine candidate
Promising results for
a malaria vaccine candidate are published online this week in The
Lancet (17 October 2007).
Researchers tested
the RTS,S/AS02D vaccine in 214 infants in Mozambique using the hepatitis
B vaccine EngerixB as a control. By the end of the six-month study,
infants who received the malaria vaccine (at ages 10, 14 and 18 weeks)
experienced a similar number of serious adverse events as infants
given the control vaccine (31 compared with 30, none of which were
reported as being related to vaccination).
In addition, for children
vaccinated against malaria, the risk of contracting new infections
was reduced (22 new cases compared with 46 new cases, adjusted
vaccine efficacy estimate 65.9 per cent, 95 per cent confidence
interval
42.6–79.8 per cent; P<0.0001). The researchers
conclude that the vaccine is safe, well tolerated and highly immunogenic.
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