Sanaria Inc. developed a vaccine that shows high potential for success, protecting more than half of those who took it. A study released on Monday said that it can protect as long as one year, surpassing the protection rate of the only licensed vaccine available now.
New malaria vaccine may prevent infection for over one year https://t.co/ODgiYYOKtQ
— NDTV (@ndtv) May 11, 2016
Sanaria Vaccine More Successful Than GlaxoSmithKline
Sanaria Inc., a tiny biotech company based on a Maryland strip mall designed the vaccine containing thousands of live malaria parasites called Plasmodium falciparum, which were weakened by radiation, NBC News reported. The vaccine worked on 55 percent of the volunteers, providing protection against infection and stopping the parasite from circulating in the blood.
"It is potentially a really very impressive vaccine," said Dr. Tony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped test the vaccine. While the vaccine is currently in the initial stages of the clinical study and only involves a handful of volunteers, 55 percent success is far better than the 30 percent protection offered by GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine Mosquirix.
The malaria vaccine provided by the drug giant won approval from European drug authorities just last year. Meanwhile, the drug designed by Sanaria is still years away from being offered in the market, reports said.
The PfSPZ Vaccine Against Malaria
The new study published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday said that vaccine created by Sanaria has shown the longest protection so far, Time reported. The vaccine called PfSPZ was developed by Sanaria Inc with the help of scientists from National Institutes of Health and researchers from University of Maryland School of Medicine.
This medical breakthrough is important since malaria infects 214 million people every year, killing about half a million. Several teams using different principles have been trying for decades to develop a malaria vaccine, which provides long-lasting protection.
There seemed to be no hope for success until now, New York Times said. Sanaria's ultimate goal is to develop a vaccine that can fight malaria in African children.
"In Africa, we've given up to 1.8 million parasites safely," Dr. Seder said. "As we keep going up in dose, the results get better." Meanwhile, the army wants a vaccine that can provide soldiers better than 80 percent protections for six months or longer.
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