Malaria Vaccine Took 30 Years. It's Still a Work in Progress
- ‘Pathfinder’ shot from Glaxo ready to be deployed in Africa
- Vaccine prevents about 4 in 10 cases amid malaria resurgence
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After more than three decades of work and almost $1 billion of investment, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and its partners are ready to deploy a vaccine for malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills almost half a million people each year.
The vaccine, developed with the non-profit organization PATH, comes at a critical time and marks a milestone in the battle against the parasite that causes malaria. But the injection is a pioneer, not a panacea: it prevented only about four in 10 malaria cases among children who received four doses in a large study.