January 25th 2012
NIAID News Release: Media Availability: NIH Tests Novel Vaccine Made from Weakened Malaria Parasites
WHAT: Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have begun enrolling participants in an early-stage clinical trial testing an investigational malaria vaccine composed of live but weakened malaria parasites in the immature, sporozoite stage of their life cycle. The Phase I trial is taking place on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md.
The candidate vaccine, known as PfSPZ, was developed by scientists at Sanaria Inc., of Rockville, Md., and is intended to protect against Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly of the malaria parasites.