GSK seeks approval for malaria vaccine: A huge first

Posted on July 24, 2014 by admin

After thirty years of research, the British drug company GlaxoSmithKline announced that it is seeking the approval of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its anti-malaria vaccine, known as RTS,S.

In October 2013, the company announced the results of its vaccine trial in infants 6 to 12 weeks old, and older babies 5 to 17 months old at their first vaccination. After 18 months of follow-up, the younger group experienced a 27 percent decrease in cases of clinical malaria compared to like-aged infants who had received a placebo vaccination. Babies who received their first vaccination at 5 to 17 months of age experienced 48 percent fewer cases than same-aged infants injected with the placebo. Glaxo estimated that for the older babies, the vaccination prevented an average of 941 cases of clinical malaria for every 1000 children vaccinated. For the younger group, the vaccine prevented 444 cases for every 1000 vaccinations. Since over 600,000 Africans — mostly children under five years old — die from malaria every year, this vaccine could potentially have a huge impact on public health….To Read More…..