The Military Vaccine Resource Directory

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Malaria vaccine

Malaria continues to claim an estimated 2 to 3 million lives annually and to account for untold morbidity in the approximately 300 to 500 million people infected annually1.

Four species of protozoan parasites cause malaria in humans: Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae, and P. ovale. P. falciparum is responsible for the majority of deaths and most of the severe forms of disease, including cerebral malaria. At-risk groups include those in whom immunity has not yet developed (travelers, young children in endemic areas, etc.) and those in whom immunity has diminished (pregnant women, and people from endemic areas who have ceased to be routinely exposed to infection). Malaria is often cited as a substantial impediment to economic and social development in endemic regions.

Malaria is considered a re-emerging disease, due largely to the spread of drug-resistant parasite strains, decay of health-care infrastructure and difficulties in implementing and maintaining vector control programs in many developing countries.

Malaria is reported frequently in U.S. travelers and military or other personnel deployed in endemic areas. While nowhere near the levels reported in the U.S. through the 1940's, malaria transmission still occurs sporadically in this country due to the persistence of mosquitoes capable of transmitting the parasite. Each year there are over 1,000 cases of imported malaria reported in the U.S.

As a result of the spread of drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes, in many respects there are now fewer tools to control malaria than existed even 20 years ago. Because of malaria's growing global burden, its control is essential. Historically, vaccines have been one of the most cost-effective and easily administered means of controlling infectious diseases, yet no licensed vaccines exist for malaria. Accumulating basic and clinical research suggest that effective vaccines for malaria can be developed and could significantly reduce morbidity and mortality, and potentially reduce the spread of infection.

Read more at the National Institutes of Health web site at:
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/malaria/malariavac.htm

GenVec, US Military pact for pre-clinical testing of malaria vaccine
pharmabiz.com - Thursday September 13, 2007
Artlce Link

GenVec, Inc. has entered into a collaborative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the US Military Malaria Vaccine Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR)

Sanaria gets $4M in gov't funds for malaria vaccine
by Neil Adler - Washington Business Journal - Monday June 06, 2005
Artlce Link

Sanaria has snagged a research grant worth more than $4 million from the Army to work on a malaria vaccine, which the biotech company hopes to have in human testing a year from now.

Rockville-based Sanaria, which is run by two former executives of Celera Genomics, has received a total of $10 million in grants from the military and the National Institutes of Health since its founding in 2003.

Sanaria Inc. Receives U.S. Army Award for Development of Its Malaria Vaccine
PR Newswire - Tuesday May 03, 2005
Artlce Link

ROCKVILLE, Md., May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanaria Inc., a Rockville, Maryland privately held company focused on development of an attenuated whole parasite Malaria Vaccine announced the receipt of a $4.09 million research and development award from the United States Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity Group in Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Malaria causes more than 500 million clinical cases and one million deaths annually, the majority in children in Africa. Whenever the U.S. military has been deployed to an area with significant malaria transmission during the past 150 years, malaria has been responsible for more casualties than hostile fire. Malaria vaccine development is a major humanitarian and military objective.

Commentary:
Further quote: "We are now working to raise the substantial funding needed to manufacture the vaccine, conduct studies in support of an investigational new drug application to the Food and Drug Administration, and complete the clinical trials in volunteers planned to begin in 2006."

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