By the time the second hand on your wristwatch has circled its dial, a child in Africa will have died of malaria. And by the time those minutes have added up to a year, more than 500,000 people will have died from the disease - and 90% of those deaths will happen in Africa.
GSK has been involved in the fight against malaria for decades. We believe that a comprehensive approach to malaria is required to scale-up use of all well established control tools, while continuing to invest in the development and use of innovative tools.
We have an active malaria research and development (R&D) programme and work hand-in-hand with organisations at the local, regional and international levels to ensure that our products complement existing malaria interventions.
The combination of increased funding, resources and education to fight malaria have contributed to a reduction in deaths from this mosquito-borne disease by 60% since 2000. However malaria still claims nearly 500,000 lives every year, mostly those of young children in Africa. GSK’s Dr Sophie Biernaux, talks about our commitment to fighting this deadly disease.
There is growing recognition that no single research body or group has the know-how or resources to tackle the most widespread and persistent diseases, such as malaria. Fortunately, a growing number of scientists are engaged in open source innovation that removes barriers and creates a more transparent environment for medical discovery.
We are determined to help defeat malaria. Find out about our three-pronged attack against the disease, including vaccine research and development.