Posted on October 23, 2004

Gates Foundation-Funded Malaria Vaccine Shows Early Promise

A proof-of-concept study published in the British medical journal The Lancet reports that a malaria vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals protected a significant percentage of children against malaria infection and severe forms of the disease for at least six months.

Co-sponsored by the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, the controlled study of 2,022 children in southern Mozambique — the largest malaria vaccine efficacy trial ever conducted on the continent — also confirmed the vaccine's safety in young children. The initiative, a global program of PATH, was established in 1999 with a $50 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which awarded it an additional $100 million in 2003.

According to the study, vaccine efficacy against clinical malaria attacks was 30 percent; efficacy against primary infection with the parasite that causes the greatest number of cases of malaria was 45 percent; and efficacy against severe disease was 58 percent. It is estimated that malaria kills between one and three million people in the world's poorest countries every year, and more children in sub-Saharan Africa than any other infectious disease. Further studies are required, however, and a commercial malaria vaccine is not expected to be available before 2010.

"These findings represent a breakthrough in the science of malaria vaccines," said MVI director Melinda Moree. "They provide convincing evidence that a vaccine could become part of the world's efforts to spare children and families from the devastating effects of this disease. This brings us another step closer to a licensed vaccine."

Francisco Songane, Mozambique's Minister of Health, said his nation was proud to be a part of the study. "Malaria is the number-one killer of African children. We did this not only for the people of Mozambique, but for the people all over Africa whose health and development suffer greatly from this terrible disease."