Onderstaand bericht maakt voor mij duidelijk waarom GSK niet wil stoppen met zijn eigen vaccin en waarom de onderhandelingen met Crucell langdurend zijn. Als Crucell vaccin beter is dan GSK's, dan is er veel hoop voor de besmette gebeiden.
Possible Malaria Vaccines Show Promise
Children receive protection from vaccine trials
A possible malaria vaccine has given good results in recent trials. Children in Mozambique were protected for 18 months.
The vaccine, RTS,S/AS02A, has been developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals who have been working with the Hospital Clinic of the University of Barcelona, the Manhica Health Research Centre (CISM), and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).
The findings have been published in the 15 November, 2005, on- line edition of The Lancet and were presented at the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria's PanAfrican Malaria Conference in Yaounde, Cameroon. These results follow a six month efficacy study published in 2004.
CISM conducted the study in partnership with Mozambique's Ministry of Health. In 2003, 1442 children received a three-dose regimen of the vaccine. No further malaria vaccinations were given. For the 18month period of follow-up, RTS,S/AS02A was shown to reduce clinical malaria episodes by 35 percent and severe malaria episodes by 49 percent.
The children who were vaccinated with RTS,S/AS02A were found, at the end of the follow-up period, to be 29 percent less likely to be infected with the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite.
"These results answer an essential question remaining from the release of the six-month efficacy data a year ago," said Pedro Alonso, MD, PhD, lead author of the Lancet article, scientific director of CISM, and head of the Center for International Health at the Hospital Clinic of the University of Barcelona. "The unprecedented response demonstrated in this study is further evidence that an effective vaccine to help control the malaria pandemic, which kills more than one million people a year in developing countries, is very possible."
"Several more years of clinical investigation will be needed before this vaccine is ready for licensing and implementation, but today's results move us an important step closer to developing a vaccine that can provide lasting protection to help save millions of lives," said Jean Stphenne, president of GSK Biologicals, which has been working on the development of this vaccine for more than 15 years. "The world should now take all required actions in order to get this vaccine to all who need it."
MVI, GSK, with CISM and other clinical trial partners in Africa will continue the clinical development of the RTS,S/AS02A vaccine. In October, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $107.6 million grant to MVI to support this work.
"The ability of this vaccine to protect children from severe malaria for at least 18 months makes it a very promising potential public health tool for the developing world," said Dr. Melinda Moree, PhD, director of MVI, a global programme created to overcome barriers to malaria vaccine development. "We are committed to making an affordable, safe, and effective malaria vaccine available as quickly as possible to those who need it most."