Report: Rockville Biotech’s Malaria Vaccine Could Hit Market Soon

While scientists have struggled for decades to produce an effective malaria vaccine, Rockville-based biotech company Sanaria is encouraged enough by clinical trials that it hopes to have its malaria vaccine on the market in three to five years, The Gazette reports.

The results of a Phase I clinical trial of the vaccine—published Thursday in the online issue of Science magazine—show that the vaccine provided complete protection against malaria in subjects who were exposed to malaria parasites, according to a news release from Sanaria.

Douglas Doerfler, chairman of the Tech Council of Maryland, told The Gazette that the results were “incredible.”

“It’s very exciting. There is not an effective vaccine at all for this very serious disease,” Doerfler told the newspaper, which reported the story Monday.

>>> See: Sanaria leaders encouraged by early malaria study

The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum causes more than 600,000 deaths each year, according to Sanaria, citing figures from the World Heatlh Organization.