Malaria battle boost

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, pledged more than $160 million from his charitable foundation to help develop vaccines for malaria as part of a package of funds totalling $3 billion revealed at a meeting at the UN to assess progress in the Millennium Development Goals to halve global poverty by 2015. Gates said that his funds would be for the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), in conjunction with the pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline. The plan is to support 'next generation' vaccines to find longer-lasting protection against the parasite. " I'm very hopeful that the malaria vaccine currently in advanced testing will be proven effective, but that will just be the first step, " said Gates. " Now is the time to develop a new generation of vaccines that are even more effective and could someday help eradicate malaria altogether. " Christian Loucq, director of the MVI, said the current vaccine, known as RTS,S, could be available by 2013 if it is swiftly approved by the European licensing authority and then the WHO, as seems likely. But the money from the Gates Foundation is aimed at accelerating development of an even better vaccine. The MVI has entered into a number of collaborative agreements in the past few months in an effort to boost development. It is now working with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne in an effort to isolate and evaluate particular antigens from the parasite that could be used in a vaccine. The MVI is also working with the Infectious Diseases Research Institute to develop new adjuvants for future vaccines and with the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute to help develop a 'human challenge center' devoted exclusively to testing the safety and efficacy of malaria vaccines. " These new funds are recognition that we have a solid strategy in place to accelerate further malaria vaccine development — and the team to deliver on it, " said Loucq. The World Bank said it would increase spending on fighting malaria in Africa by $1.1 billion, and focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, which account for 30–40 per cent of malaria deaths worldwide. The bank's president, Robert Zoelick, said some African countries had made progress in cutting malaria deaths through the distribution of bednets and more access to low-cost, effective drugs for treating the disease. The Geneva-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria also said at the meeting …