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BRITISH DRUG MAKER GlaxoSmithKline is to to seek regulatory approval for the world’s first ever vaccine against malaria.
GSK hope to get the green light for the prototype vaccine after trials showed it offered children a partial shield against the disease.
Results for the latest trial stage of the closely-followed RTS,S vaccine were unveiled at a conference in Durban, South Africa which gathered experts on malaria in Africa.
It showed that 18 months after vaccination, children aged five to 17 months had a 46 per cent reduction in the risk of clinical malaria compared to unvaccinated peers.
But in infants aged six to 12 weeks at the time of vaccination, efficacy was lower: a 27 per cent reduction in risk.
A spokeswoman for GSK told AFP that the company would file an application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) under a process aimed at facilitating new drugs for poorer countries.
Under that process, the European medications watchdog gives a “scientific opinion” on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
This opens the way for the vaccine to be considered by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which in turn can fast-track its licensing in individual countries in Africa.
“We will submit, in 2014, an application for a scientific opinion by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use on RTS,S through the EMA Article 58 procedure,” the GSK spokeswoman said.
“The intent is not to make the vaccine available in the EU as it is being developed specifically for children in sub-Saharan Africa who are most at risk of malaria.”
Malaria death toll
RTS,S is a frontrunner in the race to develop the first vaccine for malaria, which according to WHO figures for 2010 — the latest estimates available — infected around 220 million people, killing 660,000 of them. The toll is highest among small children in Africa.
The new data presented in Durban showed far less protection for infants, as opposed to young children, and also pointed to declining effectiveness over time.
At the one-year mark, efficacy among the young children group was 47 per cent against clinical malaria and 56 perc ent against severe malaria.
Among the infants group, it was 46-percent effective against clinical malaria and 36-percent effective against severe malaria at the one-year stage.
But at the 18-month mark, effectiveness had fallen to 46 per cent and 36 per cent among young children and to 27 per cent and 15 per cent among infants.
“There are a number of possible hypotheses for these differences we are looking at,” said Lucas Otieno, one of the principal investigators in the trial who works for the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
The theories include possible interference with the vaccine by maternal antibodies and the impact of vaccines for other diseases that were administered to the infants at around the same time, he said.
Otieno stressed that the trial “is ongoing”.
“We hope to have more information on the long-term protection some time in 2014. In addition, we will also be evaluating the impact of a booster dose given at 18 months after the primary vaccination series.” The initial series comprised three shots.
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Two words: population control.
If you mean that the population is controlled by allowing malaria to kill thousands of people each year, yes it is.
If you mean a vaccine is going to control the population then I suggest you get back into your faraday cage as the radio signals are getting into your head again.
@barry, may i quote john boy from the first comment, ‘brace yourselves, conspiracy theorists are coming’ : )
Wow yitzak
So an African child is worthless compared to a non- African child?
Your two words say everything
Heard an alarming statistic on the tv show QI that half the people who have been killed in the world have been killed by malaria. Not sure how they can say this with certainty from the times before records began but they claim its true. I think we underestimate this disease and anything that can help in the battle against has to be a good thing surely ?
It is good, it will without a doubt save lives which is good. Just like the vaccine has saved thousands from Polio and so many other diseases.
But its the end of the world if you are a conspiracy nut
@ Barry, I’d say it’s more like Christmas just came early for the conspiracy nuts!
Catherine,
We underestimate Malaria because it has been eradicated in most parts of Europe, so we don’t see sufferers. Also when a victim here has a repeat attack they’re normally in with medical care pretty quick and receive proper treatment. Africa, Asia and South America this is not always the case.
There has been protection definitely since the 50s daily dose of Paludrin tablets, tasted awful.
Have the conspiracy nutters linked this to the MMR jab yet?
Lorelei are you saying that the vaccination is not necessary ? Is it just access to already developed medications that is the problem in developing countries?
God no.
Paludrin has to be taken daily whereas a vaccination lasts much longer.
Paludrin tastes vile son”clever” little so and sos (yours truly) will hide it under tongue and spit out.
The point on medical care is that anyone having a repeat attack (Malaria does not go away and at present there is no cure to get rid of the illness), are under treatment quickly and therefor saved.
I was a clever so and so in 1956 have had malaria since, had 2 repeat attacks don’t want no more.
The medical profession is getting closer and closer to a cure.
@Lorelei. Eradicated Malaria from Europe? The mosquitoes which spread the pathogen cannot survive in most European climates, they favor hot tropical regions hence why equatorial regions are malaria hot spots!
John,
Malaria existed in Cork back in the 1700s. The Anopheles mosquito (the only carrier of Malaria which is caused by a pregnant female biting the victim to feed, she the injects a de-coagulant to enable easier blood flow for her to feed which carries the malaria virus) is found in parts of southern Italy, France, Russia and Norway in Summer.
There are programmes which control the mosquito and kills them off eg smoke generators, sprays these are however expensive and beyond the reach of many countries eg China carrie out such action in those provinces where malaria is a threat the same programme would cost Tanzania more than 1/5th of annual budget.
John, malaria given the right conditions could reappear here. Is however unlikely due to our climate conditions.
Malaria was endemic in the USA right up to and beyond the Canadian border until it was successfully eradicated by spraying with insecticide. The malaria map is rapidly shrinking. In 1900, endemic malaria was present in almost every country. Nowadays, the disease has been eliminated in 111 countries and 34 countries are advancing towards elimination
Correct.
Oh I see. Thanks for that. Here’s hoping a cure is in sight soon .
there have been 253 cases of bakeries in Europe in 2012
ha! bakeries, I am such an idiot, meant to say malaria !!!!
Pat, forgiven think I prefer bakeries to malaria though
We have to have population control we are breeding too much
Sexy
I believe I know where we could make a useful start.
Probably true, Sexy; but allowing millions of people to be killed by malaria is not the answer. We need contraception and education first and foremost.
Thank you, Jane
Brace yourselves, conspiracy theorists are coming!!!!
There is a better way to control this than vaccines which only gives partial protection. With nano engineering they have now found a way to turn on and off certain genes and controls in the midge’s that stop reproduction. They release loads of males adolescence into the surrounding areas and within days and weeks the population of the midge’s was drastically reduced. They are also using the nano technology to engineer vaccines that do not require a dead virus’s. They engineer an exact replica of the virus on the outside but with none of the actual virus inside it. The body see’s the outer shell as a virus and attacks it and defends in the same way as a real virus. This means that when a new virus is detected they can engineer a safe vaccine within a really short period of time, and if the virus mutates they are only one step behind it.
The world would be a healthier place if Rachel Carson and her ‘Silent Spring’ fantasy had been consigned to the dustbin. Her legacy to the world is poverty and millions of deaths, the ultimate goal of hard core ‘environmentalists’
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