Malaria vaccine, PfSPZ, to be available by 2019: Sanaria CEO

A malaria vaccine developed by Rockville, MD company, Sanaria Inc, will debut in 2019, according to a report in the Malaysian news source, Bernama today.

Plasmodium falciparum ring forms/CDC

The report say that Sanaria CEO, Dr Stephen L. Hoffman, made the statement at the Sixth Asean Congress of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology in Kuala Lumpur.

“We think this could be the first vaccine to eliminate (malaria disease), if this vaccine is given to a population…maybe, it can wipe out (the) malaria (disease),” he said, adding that research and development of the vaccine first began in 2003, using a US$110 million fund.

The PfSPZ Vaccine is composed of live but weakened sporozoites of the species Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly of the malaria-causing parasites.

Last year, the results from the phase I safety trial was reported in the journal Science, and all the six subjects given five doses intravenously were 100% protected from later challenge by bites of infectious mosquitoes, whereas five of six unvaccinated controls developed malaria — as did three of nine people given only four doses of the vaccine.

Hoffman said the PfSPZ was believed to be able to reduce 90 per cent of malaria cases, as well as serve as the best prevention to the disease.

Currently, he said, the PfSPZ was subjected to clinical testing in some countries, including Africa, United States, Europe and Germany.

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