African babies - the group most at risk of dying from malaria - may be protected against the mosquito-borne disease by an experimental vaccine, say researchers.
 
The finding clears the way for final-stage testing of GlaxoSmithKine Plc's shot and increases the chance that the world will have a usable vaccine within five years.

Malaria kills one person every 30 seconds, most of them young African children. Doctors believe a vaccine, given as part of routine infant immunization, is the best hope in fighting the disease.

A clinical trial in Mozambique of 214 infants aged 10 to 18 weeks found the vaccine was safe and reduced new infections by 65 per cent over a three-month period after treatment. Clinical illness was cut by 35 per cent over six months.

Although such efficacy rates are not as good as for some childhood vaccinations, experts believe the huge burden of malaria means the new shot can still save millions of lives.

"This is a very major breakthrough," lead investigator Dr Pedro Alonso of the University of Barcelona told reporters in a conference call.

"These tantalizing and unprecedented results further strengthen the vision that a vaccine may contribute to the reduction of the intolerable burden of disease and death caused by malaria," he said.

Malaria, caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes, kills more than 1 million people every year and makes 300 million seriously ill.

The latest findings, published online in the Lancet, are broadly in line with a 45 per cent reduction in new infections reported in 2004 when Glaxo's vaccine, known as Mosquirix or RTS,S/AS02, was given to children aged 1- to 4-years old.

Mosquirix will now go into a large-scale Phase III trial in the second half of 2008, involving 16,000 infants and young children in seven African countries.
If all goes well, the vaccine -which is the most advanced of a number in development -will be submitted for regulatory approval in 2011, suggesting it could be commercially available in 2012.

By Ben Hirschler
Reuters