European drug regulators recently gave approval to the world’s first malaria vaccine and also recommended that the vaccine should be licensed for use in babies in Africa who are at high risk of mosquito-borne disease.

The drugs called RTS,S or Mosquirix and developed by drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative could prove useful in preventing millions of cases of malaria in countries that will use it.

It has been said that the recommendations for a drug license by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are normally endorsed by the European Commission within a couple of months.

Mosquirix, which is also partly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will now be assessed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO will lay out guidance plan on where and when the drug will be used before the end of this year.

As per reports, malaria infects around 200 million people every year and has killed an estimated 584,000 in 2013, with majority of causalities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Andrew Witty, GSK’s chief executive, said in a statement that EMA’s positive recommendation was very important step in making the vaccine the world’s first malaria vaccine available.

“RTS,S on its own is not complete answer to malaria, its use alongside interventions such as bed nets and insecticides would provide meaningful contribution to controlling impact of malaria on children in African communities that need it most”.

Researchers at GSK have been working on RTS,S for 30 years and they claim that the shot also contains an adjuvant, or booster, made by US biotech company Agenus.