PATH MVI partners with GSK and Crucell to develop second-generation vaccine against malaria

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) announced today that it has entered into a collaboration with Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell, now a part of US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and UK drugs major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK). Financial terms of the accord were not disclosed.  

This collaboration is aimed at developing a second-generation vaccine against malaria - a deadly disease that kills close to 800,000 people annually, most of them young children under age five in Africa. MVI drives the development of malaria vaccines by joining its scientific, managerial, and field expertise with companies, universities, and governments to test potential malaria vaccines and invest in those with the most promise.

Will bring together two promising vaccine approaches

The new project will bring together two promising vaccine approaches in an effort to develop a malaria vaccine that may have the potential to improve on the efficacy of GSK's first generation RTS,S vaccine candidate. In this collaborative effort, a single dose of Crucell's weakened recombinant adenovirus Ad35.CS.01 malaria vaccine approach will be administered, followed by two doses of GSK's RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial that is expected to begin later this year. This would be the first test in humans of this "heterologous prime-boost" approach against malaria.