Malaria vaccine shows promise in early testing

Again, it's early, but a positive sign. While malaria may not be a critical issue in the US, it's devastating in many other parts of the world. If this vaccine works, the problem then is how to address the cost because the likes of GlaxoSmithKline are not usually open to offering products at cost no matter how many lives they can save.

An experimental vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline halved the risk of African children getting malaria in a major clinical trial, making it likely to become the world's first shot against the deadly disease.

Final-stage trial data released on Tuesday showed it gave protection against clinical and severe malaria in five- to 17-month-olds in Africa, where the mosquito-borne disease kills hundreds of thousands of children a year.

"These data bring us to the cusp of having the world's first malaria vaccine," said Andrew Witty, chief executive of the British drugmaker that developed the vaccine along with the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).