Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Experimental Vaccine Halves Risk Of Malaria In African Children, Results Of Large Clinical Trial Suggest
"An experimental vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline halved the risk of African children getting malaria in a major clinical trial, making it likely to become the world's first shot against the deadly disease," according to a study "presented at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Malaria Forum conference in Seattle and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine" on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Analysis of data from the first 6,000 children to participate in "a final-stage Phase III clinical trial conducted at 11 trial sites in seven countries across sub-Saharan Africa ... found that after 12 months of follow-up, three doses of RTS,S reduced the risk of children experiencing clinical malaria and severe malaria by 56 percent and 47 percent, respectively," the news service writes (Kelland, 10/18). The vaccine was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, and the study was partially funded by the Gates Foundation, Inter Press Service notes (Whitman, 10/18).
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