Nothing But Nets

On Friday in Maryland, Sanaria Inc. hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening of the world’s first clinical manufacturing research facility for a live attenuated sporozoite malaria vaccine. Dr. Stephen Hoffman proudly shook hands with Dr. Christian Loucq, Director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. Also in attendance were esteemed guests from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The United Nations Foundation, ExxonMobil, and the Ghanaian Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Kwame Bawuah-Edusei.

Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director, the Earth Institute, Columbia University gave remarks focusing on the economic imperative for a malaria vaccine. He also spoke about long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets being the best line of defense for malaria prevention in Africa until a vaccine becomes available. Dr. Sachs stressed that it would take little money to cover the 300,000,000 beds with nets. He stated, “One day’s worth of spending by the Pentagon is the same amount of money needed to cover every bed in malaria endemic areas of Africa.”