| Manuel Elkin Patarroyo | |
|---|---|
| Born | Manuel Elkin Patarroyo March 11, 1946 Ataco, Tolima, Colombia |
| Education | National University of Colombia (MD Rockefeller University (Ph.D) |
| Known for | Malaria license |
| Profession | Doctor |
| Institutions | Hospital San Juan de Dios, National University of Colombia |
| Specialism | Pathologist |
| Research | Immunology |
| Notable prizes | Prince of Asturias Awards (1994) |
Manuel Elkin Patarroyo (born November 3, 1946) [1] is a Colombian pathologist who made the world's first attempt of synthetic vaccine for malaria,[2] a disease transmitted by mosquitoes that affects millions of people in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. The vaccine candidate, first developed in 1987, was evaluated in clinical trials carried out by the WHO in Gambia, Tanzania and Thailand, and had mixed results.[3] In 2009, a comprehensive Cochrane review assessed the SPf66 as being not efficacious in Africa and Asia, and as having a low but statistically significant efficacy of 28% in South America.[4] Today, after more than 33 years of research, the SPf66 malaria vaccine is not recommended for prophylaxis of malaria and is listed as "inactive" by the WHO.[5]
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Patarroyo studied medicine at the National University of Colombia, received a scholarship to Yale University, and subsequently, he took a Postdoctoral stay from Rockefeller University in New York.
He was working on improving the vaccine at the Instituto Nacional de Inmunología based in the Hospital San Juan de Dios in Bogotá, Colombia. Unfortunately, lack of government funding and mismanagement led to the bankruptcy of the Hospital San Juan de Dios and therefore to the relocation of his lab. After having worked for more than two decades at the Hospital San Juan de Dios, Dr. Patarroyo could not deter the demise of this very important Colombian teaching hospital.
Dr. Patarroyo has been criticized by the scientific community in Colombia for being the recipient of a disproportionate share of the scarce funds that the government allocates for scientific research.