TIP announces malaria vacc development plans

Netherlands-based Top Institute Pharma, a consortium of industrial and academic research groups, says it is to undertake a ground breaking project aimed at developing a novel malaria vaccine. The institute said that the four-year program, which has a 16.0-million euro ($23.2 million) budget, will build on the work conducted by scientists at both the Raboud and Leiden University Medical Centers, and the malaria-focused US biotechnology firm Sanaria.

The Institute, which is focused on subject areas covered by the World Health Organization's Priority Medicines Program, said that an increase in the number of resistant strains of the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and the mosquito which harbors it, has created an urgent need for an efficacious vaccine. At present, the disease is thought to affect around 300 million people worldwide, causing approximately one million deaths a year, primarily in developing countries.

Daan Crommelin, TI Pharma's scientific director, said that "the unique collaboration between a front-running company such as Sanaria, and two excellent Dutch medical centers, both leaders in the field," was expected to make major progress in the fight against malaria.