Feature Kenya
Malaria kills more people in Africa than HIV-Aids. Therefore attempts to produce a vaccine against the disease should normally be received with joy. But no. The trial stages of a new vaccine, RTS,S, have raised a storm in Africa. Our Kenyan correspondent, Wanjohi Kabukuru, went to find out.
Hunt for malaria vaccine raises a storm
P
INGILIKANI IS A SMALL VILLAGE in Chonyi, deep in Kilifi Coun- ty, in Kenya’s coastal region. Just like its Swahili name suggests, it is a place of stunning rolling
hills and steep undulating knolls. It is at Pingilikani that Felicia Dzom-
bo’s daughter took part in history-making. Dzombo’s daughter is among 15,460 infants and children drawn from seven African countries who have been enrolled in the testing of a potential malaria vaccine, called RTS,S. According to the World Health Or- ganisation (WHO), over one million people die annually from malaria, the majority of them in 30 sub-Saharan African countries. Malaria is also the leading cause of death for children under five. Te annual economic cost of the disease
currently stands at $12bn. Over the years, Dzombo has seen several trials within her immediate family and community but she does not know what happens after the tests. At the Pingilikani Health Dispensary,
three heavyweight institutions – Glaxo- SmithKline Biologicals (GSK Biologicals), PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (PATH- MVI), and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the country’s princi- pal medical research agency, among other partners – have set up a malaria vaccine trial site. Pingilikani is one of 11 such trial sites
spread across seven African countries. Te others are in Nanoro (Burkina Faso), Lam-
22 | October 2011 | New African
barene (Gabon), Kintampo and Kumasi (Ghana), Lilongwe, (Malawi), Manhica (Mozambique), Bagamoyo and Korogwe (Tanzania) and Siaya, Kombewa and Kilifi (Kenya). Te trial sites were strategically picked as they “represented diverse ma- laria transmission settings”. In the words of GSK Biologicals and PATH-MVI, the sites “were chosen for their track record of world class clinical research, strong community relations and commitment to meeting the highest international ethical, medical, clini- cal and regulatory standards.” Te malaria vaccine is a story that goes
back to 1987, when GSK Biologicals (the Belgium-based vaccine division of the glo- bal pharmaceutical giant, GSK – headquar- tered in London) in collaboration with the US Army’s Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) developed RTS,S as a vaccine candidate. Dr Joe Cohen, who is currently GSK’s
vice president of Research and Development in charge of Emerging Diseases and HIV, is the co-inventor of RTS,S. GSK Biologicals is the world’s lead- ing vaccine manufacturer. In 2008, it
distributed 1.1 billion doses of vaccines to 176 countries across the globe. Te com- pany reveals that RTS,S was first tested in healthy adults in Belgium and the USA. It took 11 years of research before the vaccine was developed. “Phase One trials”, how- ever, were conducted among adults in Te Gambia. In January 2001, with financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GSK and the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health-Malaria Vaccine Initiative (PATH-MVI) entered into a public-private partnership agreement to develop RTS,S for children in Africa. Phase two trials commenced in 2002
in Mozambique with 2,000 children in the study. Te WHO notes that there are several malaria vaccines being studied but they “are at least five to ten years behind RTS,S in their development.” In 2008, 16,000 children and infants
in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania were earmarked for a massive vaccine trial. By January this year, according to PATH- MVI, the entire project had enrolled 15,460 infants (between 6-12 weeks) and
Joe Cohen, GlaxoSmithKline’s vice- president of Research and Development in charge of Emerging Diseases and HIV, and co-inventor of the potential new malaria vaccine, RTS,S
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