World's first malaria vaccine may hit markets by 2015

The world's first anti-malaria vaccine may be approved for use within two years, after encouraging results from a large-scale trial of a vaccine candidate.

UK drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is seeking regulatory approval for the vaccine after trial data showed that it had cut the number of cases in African children.

Results from a large-scale Phase III trial, presented in Durban, show that the most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate, RTS,S, continued to protect young children and infants from clinical malaria up to 18 months after vaccination.

"Based on these data, GSK now intends to submit a regulatory application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA)," GSK said in a statement.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that a policy recommendation for the RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate is possible as early as 2015 if it is granted a positive scientific opinion by EMA, it said.

These latest results demonstrated that over 18 months of follow-up, RTS,S was shown to almost halve the number of malaria cases in young children (aged 5-17 months at first vaccination) and to reduce by around a quarter the malaria cases in infants (aged 6-12 weeks at first vaccination).

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