Malaria Scientist celebrates success after 24 years

(Reuters) - For Joe Cohen, a GlaxoSmithKline research scientist who has spent 24 years trying to create the world's first malaria vaccine, Tuesday, October 18, 2011 goes down as a fabulous day.

"There were many ups and downs, and moments over the years when we thought 'Can we do it? Should we continue? Or is it really just too tough?," he told Reuters, as data showing the success of his RTS,S vaccine were unveiled at an international conference on malaria.

"But today I feel fabulous. This is a dream of any scientist -- to see your life's work actually translated into a medicine , that can have this great impact on peoples' lives. How lucky am I?"

Final stage clinical trial data on RTS,S, also known as Mosquirix, showed it halved the risk of African children getting malaria, making it likely to become the world's first successful vaccine against the deadly disease.

While scientists say it is no "silver bullet" and will not end the mosquito-borne infection on its own, it is being hailed as a crucial weapon in the fight against malaria and one that could speed the path to eventual worldwide eradication.

Malaria is caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of mosquitoes. It kills more than 780,000 people per year, most of them babies or very young children in Africa.

Cohen's vaccine goes to work at the point when the parasite enters the human bloodstream after a mosquito bite. By stimulating an immune response, it can prevent the parasite from maturing and multiplying in the liver.

Without that immune response, the parasite re-enters the bloodstream and infects red blood cells, leading to fever, body aches and, in some cases, death.

Although Cohen's scientific work has been largely in Belgium, where he runs a GSK laboratory, the final-stage trials of RTS,S were conducted in Africa, where malaria hits hardest.

With GSK working in partnership with the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), the trials became Africa's largest-ever medical experiment as the vaccine was tested in around 16,000 children across seven countries.

Cohen said that if all goes to plan, RTS,S could be licensed and rolled out by 2015.

SOUL SEARCHING

As he looks back at the vaccine's long, slow development, the bearded 68-year-old molecular biologist laughs at how naive he was when he first agreed to take on the task.

It was April 1, 1987 when his boss at the drug company, then called Smith, Kline & French, asked him to be head of the malaria vaccine research program, just after an early-stage experimental vaccine and failed a test.

"Unfortunately, it was not a great success. Only one volunteer out of the several that were vaccinated was actually protected. So, after quite a bit of optimism, there was then quite a bit of soul searching," Cohen said.

"I did not actually know much about malaria, apart from about the enormous medical burden it represented. But I felt I was taking on an enormous scientific challenge, and that was exciting for a relatively young scientist."

Having come from academia and post-doctorate studies into what he said were "sometimes esoteric questions" of molecular biology, he was also attracted by the prospect of doing something "very meaningful" in terms of global health.

Getting on for a quarter of a century later, Cohen said he had "never dreamed it would take this long."

He was also careful to underline that this was a first step, as well as a world first. GSK, MVI and several other research groups and drug firms are already working on next generation vaccines and on other ways of making malaria shots they hope will better the roughly 50 percent success rate of RTS,S.

"The work is not over, that is for sure," Cohen said.

la furia:
na 2day, they shld keep on researching, later u guys will want Africans to come and pay 4 d so called vaccines. i hope this pple are not broke

webdezzi:

that will be one of the biggest breakthru in science,
apart from the malaria, we need to get the carriers off our planet.

these days, it appear they have swapped their proboscis for a set of teeth

buzugee:

hopefully they test it on europeans first. the ones who trvel to tropical countries

Princek12:

You sound like you allow your emotion to cloud your reasoning. Why should they first test it on Europeans who vacation in African countries? Does that make sense to you? The group of people who suffer from Malaria the most and who are in need of the vaccine are Africans, and they should be the ones who are tested first. The vacationing Europeans are not the primary victims of Malaria. I recognize your sentiment, but this is not one of those situations where a vaccine that is developed for worldwide use is being tested on Africans first, putting them at risk ahead of Europeans; this vaccine is being developed for areas that are seriously afflicted with the Malaria epidemic, of which Africa is a significant part. Numerous lives have been lost to this disease in Africa. I wholeheartedly welcome this development.

buzugee:

ahhh the bliss of naivety and ignorance. must be nice to be a virgin to human  intentions. why dont you take your daughter and son and go collect the vaccine now. come tell us in 2 years time how ya kids are faring healthwise, the truth of the matter is that you guys in africa are breeding like rats. the population of the world is getting out of control and you africans keep on breeding like rats. something has to be done about this. either forcibly or trickery. thats the job of the pharmaceutical industry. eugenics. population control.

Princek12:

who is naive and ignorant? Me or you? You are just someone who relishes in cynicism. I am sure you take medicines when you are sick. You probably do not know that all those medicines you take had at one point undergone clinical trials. Someone has to be the guinea pig for new drugs or vaccine, as in that person has to make sacrifices in order to get the drug approved for commercial use. And in this situation, it makes sense that the people who are most afflicted, and who are in dire need of the vaccine, should be the ones in the clinical trials.

yomz1e:

@ buzugee, why dont you start by jumping off third mainland bridge and then we don't have to worry about you and your future generations who would make africa more over populated,  jooh o!

buzugee:

ok first off i dont use western drugs. lets throw that out there. you may find me dabbling in echinacea, goldenseal, milk thistle, garlic , dandelion and whatnot. as per relishing in cynicism, you have to look at the track record of the person who wants to give you what to put into your  body. are you comfortable with their track record ? well good-luck to you and yours

Princek12:


so you have never used western drugs? look me in the eyes and tell me you have never used western drugs? . so if you catch malaria or typhoid or pneumonia or a bacterial infection, you will start drinking milk and garlic and echinachea and blah blah blah? Get outta here, bloody liar.