Blog examines RTS,S malaria vaccine trial results

In a post in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Owen Barder, a senior fellow and director for Europe at the CGD, reports on the results of a large Phase III clinical trial conducted in Africa on the malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday. "The study of the phase III trials finds that in babies (aged 6-12 weeks) the vaccine only reduces malaria by less than a third. This is disappointing because this is less than half the effectiveness that had been suggested by the phase II clinical trials," he writes. "The RTS,S vaccine demonstrates that it may, in principle, be possible to develop a vaccine against malaria, even if this particular candidate vaccine is not eventually successful," Barder states and highlights an Advance Market Commitment approach proposed by the CGD, under which "donors would not choose research programs to fund" but would instead "contract to pay for a successful vaccine, if and when it is developed" (11/10).