The lowdown: As part of a US$3 billion pledge for a Global Malaria Action Plan to reduce the mortality and morbidity due to malaria by 2015, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced on 25 September 2008 that it will provide $168.7 million to PATH for its Malaria Vaccine Initiative. PATH — a non-profit organization that collaborates with public and private partners — is working in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals on the company's RTS,S vaccine (Mosquirix). Mosquirix consists of the RTS polypetide — a recombinant protein that combines the Plasmodium falciparum pre-erythrocytic circumsporozoite antigen and the hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) — co-expressed with unfused HBsAg (S). The vaccine has completed Phase II trials and the partners expect it to enter Phase III this year.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also awarded a $1.9 million grant to the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association on 22 September 2008 to establish a new Infectious Diseases Center for Global Health Policy and Advocacy focusing on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB). HIV/AIDS research received a separate boost from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which launched a $30 million HIV Neutralizing Antibody Center to develop vaccine candidates that can elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV. The centre will be located at the Scripps Research Institute and will be linked to an international research consortium known as the Neutralizing Antibody Consortium.
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