Colombian promises fully effective malaria vaccine in 2 years

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COLOMBIA VACCINE | 03 de febrero de 2015

Colombian immunologist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo. EFE/File 

Bogota, Feb 3 (EFE).- Colombian immunologist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, who developed a malaria vaccine with a 40 percent rate of effectiveness, says now that he is again allowed to conduct trials with monkeys he can create a 100 percent-effective formula in two years.

Colombia's Council of State on Monday authorized Patarroyo to use monkeys from the Amazon region for his research, centered on improving the vaccine he developed in 1987.

The decision allows the scientist to use the monkeys as long as he complies with the relevant directives from the Corporation for the Sustainable Development of Southern Amazonia and Patarroyo said he is confident of develop a vaccine with 100 percent effectiveness within two years.

"Four years of inaction is a lot of time," he said in an interview with BluRadio. "We are two years away from delivering a malaria vaccine that will be completely effective."

Patarroyo, who signed over to the United Nations the patent for his first malaria vaccine, saw his work interrupted for four years after environmentalists accused him of "illegal trafficking" in the animals he used.

The scientist said the method he has developed over the past years can be applied to creating vaccines against tuberculosis and other deadly diseases.

"It is a method to develop any kind of vaccine," he said. "Once you have a formula, it can be applied to develop any vaccine."

In an interview with Efe last year, Patarroyo said that after three years of research he obtained an anti-malaria vaccine with 80 percent effectiveness.