Malaria is a mosquito-borne parasitic disease that kills nearly 800,000 people a year. Over 90 per cent of all malaria deaths occur in Africa where it remains a leading cause of childhood mortality.
GSK's African Malaria Partnership (AMP) was established in 2001 to improve prevention and treatment of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Since then we have committed over £3 million on malaria initiatives. In late 2009, the AMP announced new partnerships in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania to help strengthen community-based efforts to fight malaria. These projects focus on building capacity for community health workers and creating behaviour change.
We also invest in research against diseases of the developing world. Our scientists have been working to develop a malaria vaccine for more than two decades. Positive first results from the phase III study of our candidate vaccine, RTS,S, being developed in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), were announced in October 2011.