An experimental malaria vaccine from drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) hasn’t worked as well as hoped in clinical tests, but it does provide some protection.  So the company will seek European regulatory approval for what could be the world’s first vaccine against the parasite-caused tropical killer.

Glaxo’s “RTS,S” vaccine does provide partial protection against the mosquito-born disease that kills as many as 660,000 people every year – most of them young children in Africa.

The latest data comes from a study of 15,460 African children.  It showed that three doses of the vaccine provided partial protection against malaria 18 months after inoculation, and there were 46 percent fewer cases of clinical malaria.  After that period the vaccine’s effects appears to wane slightly.

GSK says the vaccine will be not-for-profit – but it will add 5 percent to the cost price, which will go towards further research and development work on tropical diseases.