Manuel Patarroyo- Colombia

Manuel Patarroyo, a Colombian research scientist, has developed the world's first safe and effective malaria vaccine. The vaccine is the first against a parasite.

The vaccine has been proven effective between 30 and 60 percent of the time to those over one year old. At a 30% effectiveness rate, the vaccine could protect 100 million people from malaria, and could save 1 million lives out of an annual death toll of 3 million. No vaccine has ever protected that many people.

Patarroyo claims that his work and the efforts of his Third World colleagues are often treated with a condescension bordering on racism by northern scientists. He points out that it took his Bogota laboratory four years to develop the world's first safe and effective malaria vaccine, but six years to have it recognized.

There were discussions with a major pharmaceutical company to manufacture the vaccine in Switzerland, but that would have made the price very high. Patarroyo insisted that the vaccine be produced in Columbia, in order to keep the price low. If produced in Europe or the US, the price per dose would have been $10, but by producing the vaccine in Colombia, it is estimated that it will cost 40 cents per dose.

Rather than profit from his discovery, Patarroyo turned the patent for his vaccine over to the World Health Organization (WHO) for free, because he felt that the benefits should go to mankind, not to large pharmaceutical houses or rich investors.

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