Malaria vaccine research

The Advanced Purchase Commitments approach proposed by Kremer and Glennerster (2004) and the Center for Global Development (2005) has attracted considerable public attention as well as seed funding from the Gates Foundation in recent years. Advanced purchase commitments could be useful for certain types of pharmaceutical products, principally vaccines, to stimulate research by promising a subsidy of a fixed value per unit for a given number of units. The most attractive candidate product for such a commitment is a malaria vaccine, since the health (and economic) benefits from an effective malaria vaccine could be very large. 

Berndt, E., R. Glennerster, M. R. Kremer, J. Lee, R. Levine, G. Weizsacker, andH. Williams. 2005. Advanced Markets for a Malaria Vaccine Estimating Costs and Effectiveness. National Bureau ofEconomic Research Working Paper 11288. 

Some examples of research under development include a synthetic conjugated polysaccharide vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae type B, which has been described in 2004 (O Fig. 34). The vaccine prototype was obtained by conjugation to human serum albumin (HSA) [173]. Furthermore, very recently a malaria vaccine has been suggested [174] which is based on the total synthesis of the malaria toxin responsible for the morbidity and mortality associated with malaria. The malaria parasite expresses a large amount of glycosylphosphatidylinositol... 

Malarial infection does not produce immunity in patients, and active research has been initiated to develop a malaria vaccine. " A vaccine that blocks the entry of sporozoites into the liver cells will prevent malaria at this stage. However, immunity to sporozoites does not protect the host against parasites in the erythrocytic cycle. Infective sporozoites of P. falciparum are covered by a polypeptide, circumsporozoite protein. Isolatiou aud ideutification of the gene encoding for this circumsporozoite protein have led to the development of a monoclonal antibody by recombinant DNA technology P. falciparum sporozoite vaccine is now under investigation. ... 

National Institutes of Health, Research for Malaria Vaccine Development, NIH, Bethesda, MD, http //www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/malaria/malvacdv/support.htm, [accessed Feb 6, 2002],... 

Despite extensive efforts, many infectious diseases, including AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, still lack effective and safe vaccines. Many noninfectious diseases, including cancer, autoimmune diseases, and allergy, also lack safe and effective vaccines. One reason for this lack is the absence of precise protective immune mechanism and immunological correlates of protection. These challenges can only be addressed with continuous productive research. Better rational vaccine design methods can only be developed after fundamental protective immunity mechanisms are better understood. 

At present there is no vaccine for malaria. A recent trial of a vaccine was conducted in Mozambique and was found to prevent infection in 30% of the test population and prevented severe disease in 60% of those infected (Alonso et al., 2004). New drug therapies are also being researched targeting the forms of Plasmodium that are resistant to current medications. 

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