"It's on that trajectory, and the plan is to file with the European Medicines Agency in 2014," says David Kaslow, vice president of product development at the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which supported development of the vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
A positive scientific verdict from the European agency, expected in 2015, would pave the way for African countries to approve it for use by 2016, says Kaslow, who presented the results in Durban, South Africa, at a major international conference on malaria.
Called RTS,S, the vaccine was tested in 15,000 children in 11 African trial sites. Half were babies aged 6 to 12 weeks and the other half toddlers aged 5 to 17 months. Half in each group received the vaccine and half a placebo, and all continued where possible with other precautions to prevent malaria such as sleeping under bed nets.
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