Washington: The world should be aiming to get vaccines, which cut malaria cases by 75 percent, and are capable of eliminating malaria, licensed by 2030, according to the updated 2013 Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap.
This new target comes in addition to the original 2006 Roadmap's goal of having a licensed vaccine against Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of the disease, for children under 5 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015.
Dr Robert D. Newman, Director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Malaria Programme, said that despite all the recent progress countries have made, and despite important innovations in diagnostics, drugs and vector control, the global burden of malaria remains unacceptably high.
Final results from Phase III trials of the most advanced vaccine candidate, RTS,S/AS01, will be available by 2015.
Depending on the final trial results, and depending on the outcome of the regulatory review by the European Medicines Agency, a WHO recommendation for use and subsequent prequalification of this first vaccine could occur in late 2015.
Dr Jean-Marie Okwo Bele , Director of WHO's Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, said that the new vaccines should show at least 75 percent efficacy against clinical malaria, be suitable for use in in all malaria-endemic areas, and be licensed by 2030.
She said that the roadmap also sets a target for malaria vaccines that reduce transmission of the parasite.
