The first-ever Phase III trial for a malaria vaccine has officially begun, with more than 5,000 African children already given the first round of malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S, researchers announced today (November 3) at a pan-African conference on malaria in Nairobi, Kenya.
"It's a really historical moment," said Joe Cohen, vice president of R&D for Vaccines for Emerging Diseases & HIV at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals and the co-inventor of the vaccine. While the efficacy of RTS,S leaves plenty of room for improvement—providing only about a 50% reduction in malaria—it is the first vaccine candidate for malaria to warrant a Phase III trial.
"It has been an uphill battle to find a vaccine against [malaria]," Cohen said. In Phase II trials, the RTS,S vaccine showed a 53% reduction in clinical episodes of malaria for eight months in children 5 to 17 months old last year, and in August, a trial in ...
