The Serum Institute of India, the largest vaccine maker in the world, has pledged to produce 200 million doses annually.
According to the British scientists who developed it, a new vaccine could reduce malaria deaths by 70% by 2030.
The forecast was made after clinical studies in Africa demonstrated that the R21/Matrix-M vaccine was particularly efficient in protecting youngsters, who bore the brunt of the disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
Later this month, the results will be submitted to the World Health Organization, and a manufacturer has already been lined up to generate 200 million doses annually. Each item could cost less than £5.
Professor Adrian Hill, head of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford and the study’s leader, remarked, “This is quite fascinating.
People have attempted to create malaria vaccinations for more than a century. Approximately 140 different malaria vaccines have been deployed.
“We think these data are the best yet of any malaria vaccine.”
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 40 million children reside in regions with high or moderate malaria transmission.
Despite the use of bed nets, prophylactic medications, and pesticide sprays, a kid under the age of five dies of the disease every 75 seconds.
How the trial was carried out
In the current study, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, 409 young children in Burkina Faso received three doses administered four weeks apart, followed by a booster dose 12 months later.
A year later, results demonstrated that it prevented 80% of malaria cases.
According to the researchers, the sole alternative malaria vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, is 44% effective over one year.
Prof. Hill explained, “We vaccinated shortly before the height of the malaria season, so this partially explains the difference.”
We feel that our vaccine is superior and more effective.
Later this month, the World Health Organization will receive complete data, including the results of unpublished research involving 4,800 children in four African countries.
A license to distribute the vaccine could be issued as early as the beginning of next year.
The Serum Institute of India, the largest vaccine maker in the world, has pledged to produce 200 million doses per year beginning in 2019.
Prof. Hill stated, “We would like to add a malaria vaccine to bed nets, spraying, and drug-preventive treatment.”
“If we can accomplish this on a large scale, we could see a considerable reduction in the burden of malaria fatalities and sickness – perhaps a 70 percent reduction in mortality by 2030.”
However, scientists cautioned that the vaccine’s benefits may not be realized if wealthy nations reduce their financing for malaria control. The United Kingdom and the United States have been important benefactors in the past.
Malaria efforts are “at a crossroads.”
Prof. Azra Ghani, chair of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London, stated, “These discoveries come at a critical time in the fight against malaria.
“With the proper funding – specifically, sustained support for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria at their forthcoming replenishment conference later this month – we can reverse recent trends and continue on the path to eradicating malaria.
Without this investment, we risk losing the advances made over the past many decades and experiencing a recurrence of malaria.
