UNC Project – Malawi began the Phase III trial of the world’s most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate, known as RTSS.

Irving Hoffman, U.S. director of UNC Project – Malawi, and the study’s co-principal investigator says the medication showed 50-percent efficacy in its Phase II trials.

Hoffman says most deaths occur in Africa and many of these are in children under the age of five.

The trial will focus on children, with one group between the ages of 6 and 12 months old, and the other group between 5 and 17 months old.  The participants will be monitored for over 2 years to measure the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.  GlaxoSmithKline developed the vaccine.

Hoffman says the U-N-C Project is one of several sites participating in the trial… which is expected to enroll 16-thousand children and infants in a total of 7 countries in Africa.  About 16-hundred are expected to be enrolled in Malawi.

Hoffman says the results of the trial are being monitored by several organizations.

UNC has been working in Malawi since 1989.