LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - The world's first malariavaccine, which won a green light last week from European drugsregulators, will be rolled out gradually in Africa, its makersaid on Wednesday.
"We believe that there should be a thoughtful, stagedroll-out of this vaccine, particularly because it is importantthat we acquire more knowledge about where it really works thebest," GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Chief Executive AndrewWitty told reporters.
Experts also need to build up a bigger database on safety,he added, since it is the first time a vaccine will have beenlaunched in Africa without any history of use in developedcountries.
Mosquirix still faces hurdles before being made available inAfrica, with a review pending at the World Health Organization(WHO). It also needs the support of governments and otherfunders, who will pay for it, suggesting it will not be in usebefore 2017, according to the WHO.
GSK will not make any profit from Mosquirix, since it willbe priced at the cost of manufacture plus a 5 percent margin,which will be reinvested in research on malaria and otherneglected tropical diseases.
However, some of the vaccine-boosting technology developedover the last 30 years to help with the malaria shot is nowbeing used in other commercial projects, such as GSK's newvaccine for shingles. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by David Holmes)