European Medicines Agency approves first malaria vaccine

A vaccine against malaria has gained regulatory approval for the first time. Mosquirix, developed by GlaxoSmithKline, has been approved by the European Medicines Agency after trials showed modest but worthwhile effects in children aged between 6 weeks and 17 months.

The success came after years of largely unavailing effort to develop a vaccine against a disease that still kills more than 600 000 people a year, 90% of them in Africa and the vast …