Malaria vaccine opens a 'new door for science'

25 July 2014 - 02:13 By Katharine Child
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Many lives may soon be saved thanks to the world's first malaria vaccine, which could be approved for use in the near future.

Pharmaceutical company Glaxo-SmithKline submitted papers to the European Medicines Agency yesterday, asking it to approve the new vaccine.

"It's a new door for science. We have never been here before," said Dr Allan Pamba, GSK's East African affairs spokesman.

GSK said that African countries wanted to see the vaccine approved before they followed suit. Salesl could start as soon as 2016.

The new vaccine took 30 years to develop.

GSK was given $200-million in funding to develop it by the PATH vaccine initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Malaria kills 600000 people every year, with 70% of deaths being of children under five.

The vaccine does not offer complete protection from malaria but reduces the risk for children aged 17 months to five years old.

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