World’s First Malaria Vaccine May Soon Hit the Market

European Medicines Agency has green lighted the first malaria-vaccines developed by GSK.

Medic treating child for malaria in South Sudan’s city of Bor in March 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

The world’s first malaria vaccine got a green light on Friday from European Medicines Agency (EMA) who recommended it should be licensed for use in Africa for babies at risk of the mosquito-borne disease.

Malaria killed an estimated 584,000 people in 2013, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

The shot, called RTS,S or Mosquirix has been developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. It will be the first licensed human vaccine against a parasitic disease.

Mosquirix, also part-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will now be assessed by the World Health Organisation. The WHO has promised to give its guidance on when and where it should be used before the end of this year.

Researchers, Investors Push for Licensing 

I have absolutely no reservations in terms of rolling this vaccine out. Why? Because the efficacy, when translated into cases averted and deaths averted, is just tremendous. It will have an enormously significant public health impact.
– Joe Cohen, Scientist, GlaxoSmith Kline

While RTS,S on its own is not the complete answer to malaria, its use alongside those interventions currently available such as bed nets and insecticides would provide a very meaningful contribution to controlling the impact of malaria on children in those African communities that need it the most.
– Andrew Witty, Chief Executive, GlaxoSmith Kline

Its trial data, released in 2011 and 2012, showed it only reduced episodes of malaria in babies aged 6-12 weeks by 27%, and by around 46% in children aged 5-17 months.

EMA’s recommendation is that the shot should nevertheless be licensed for use in babies in the full age range covered in the trials – from 6 weeks to 17 months.

More than 80% of malaria deaths are in children under the age of five.

Some malaria specialists have expressed concerns that the complexities and potential costs of deploying this first vaccine when it only provides partial protection, makes it less attractive and more risky.