Malaria vaccine could save millions of children's lives | Society | The Guardian: "
The first-ever widescale trial of a malaria vaccine has produced promising results, say reseacrhers, raising hopes of an imminent breakthrough in the fight against the mosquito-borne tropical disease. Photograph: Pa"
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Millions of small children's lives could be saved by a new vaccine that has been shown to halve the risk of malaria in the first large-scale trials across seven African countries.
The long-awaited results of the largest-ever malaria vaccine study, involving 15,460 babies and small children, show that it could massively reduce the impact of the much-feared killer disease. Malaria takes nearly 800,000 lives every year – most of them children under five. It damages many more.
The vaccine has been in development for two decades – the brainchild of scientists at the UK drug company GlaxoSmithKline, which has promised to sell it at no more than a fraction over cost-price, with the excess being ploughed back into further tropical disease research.
"This data bring us to the cusp of having the world's first malaria vaccine, which has the potential to significantly improve the outlook for children living in malaria endemic regions across Africa," said GSK's chief executive, Andrew Witty.
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