Malaria Vaccine Available in 3 Years
GlaxoSmithKline, a
major UK drug firm, seeks to market the world's first malaria vaccine within
three years. Promising testing results showed that the drug, RTS,S/AS01
(commercially named as Mosquirix) was effective in protecting young infants for
up to 18 months, nearly ‘halving the number of malaria cases in children
between five and 17 months old’. The vaccine was engineered using genes from
the outer protein of the malaria parasite and a division of a hepatitis B virus
as well as a chemical adjuvant (a substance or agent) to boost the immune system response; its funding
has stemmed from £124 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and
its development has been aided by GSK’s partnership with the PATH Malaria
Vaccine Initiative.
However, a major setback appears to be that
the effectiveness of the vaccine wanes over time, only protecting fewer than 20%
of children for 4 years. Despite this, because of the vast influence of malaria
(660,000 people killed by malaria in 2010) the number of cases of the disease
the vaccine can help is immense, and thus the vaccine ‘does not need to be
fully effective to make a huge difference’. Nonetheless, the cost of issuing
the vaccine is a major concern, with economics presenting a significant barrier
to the distribution amongst LEDCs who rely on NGOs and charitable foundations.
References:
The Daily Telegraph
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