March 3, 2000
NEW YORK, US (PANA) - Smithkline Beecham, a leading pharmaceutical company, has announced it would commence trials of its new malaria vaccine among children in Gambia.
A news release by the company Thursday said that the trials could start as early as the last quarter of 2000.
Clinical trials of the vaccine conducted in Gambia had shown promising results, the company added.
Smithkline's announcement came as US President Bill Clinton met in Washington Thursday with heads of leading pharmaceutical companies and the board of the recently formed Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation to discuss his millennium vaccine initiative.
The initiative seeks to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines for deadly diseases such as malaria, HIV and Tuberculosis.
The chief executive officer of Smithkline Beecham, Jean-Pierre Garnier, was reported to have reaffirmed at the meeting the pledge of his company to donate about five billion doses of Albendazone worth one billion dollars in the fight to eliminate lymphatic filariasis.
Nigeria, Egypt and Western Samoa were the first set of countries to benefit from the elimination programme, started late 1999.
Another set of 12 countries are to join the programme in 2000. The elimination programme is spread over 20 years.
Meanwhile, the alliance has reported that nearly 50 countries, majority of them from Africa, have responded to its call to eligible countries to submit an "expression of interest" to its programme to step up immunisation activities.
Countries with per capita income of less than 1,000 dollars a year are qualified to participate.
Countries that have expressed their interest include 26 from Africa, 11 from Eastern Europe, six from Asia, three from Latin America and one from the Middle East.
Among African countries are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia and Madagascar.
Others are Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.
Formed in 1999 to ensure that every child is protected against vaccine-preventable diseases, the alliance has as its members, national governments, UN agencies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, the World Bank, foundations and research and technical health institutions.