A Review of Malaria Vaccine Candidate RTS,S/AS02A

This was extracted and made into a stand-alone file in January 2010 following a request from some malaria science colleagues to do so. This is in light of the unveiling in late 2009 by the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative of their new strategy for developing nextgeneration vaccines, that is vaccines that go beyond the RTS,S approach. A common theme running through the original report in 2006 was a concern regarding the overemphasis in much of the policy debate of the time on low efficacy vaccine goals and a scientific approach that was too narrow. Now “MVI has modified its vision to reflect a new, broader focus toward malaria vaccine development”. 3 The new strategy “Raises bar, heightens the focus on achieving an 80 percent effective vaccine”. 4 Given how nervewracking it can be at times sticking one‟s neck on the line on these issues, it‟s a relief at times to see progress in a way that one was arguing. Hopefully this file will help the debate about these issues and encourage thinking about the new strategy. The wording is as it was in the original, even though at times I was tempted to reword (and re-tone) some observations; this way the reader doesn‟t get an ex post rendition of my thinking with four or five more years of hindsight, but the original warts-and-all insights.