High efficacy in children and a very low cost which should not exceed 3 dollars. The new Vaccine against the malaria developed by the University of Oxford and produced by the Serum Institute of India, it obtained the first authorization for use in Ghana and represents a turning point, say the infectious disease specialists, which could lead to a drastic reduction in mortality especially in Africa, where malaria is still a big killer. The R21/Matrix-MTM vaccine is the second developed so far, but it is the only one to exceed the threshold of 75% efficacy (77% at 12 months of follow-up) set by the World Health Organization. It takes advantage of the Matrix-M adjuvant of the Usa Novavax company, a saponin-based substance that enhances the immune response making it more lasting. The Serum Institute has already established potential production capacities of over 200 million doses per year and contacts are underway with DEK Vaccines Limited in Ghana to enable future production in Africa.
Malaria, a highly transmitted mosquito discovered in Kenya: it can proliferate in both urban and rural environments
I study
This is a huge step forward according to experts, considering that malaria kills half a million people globally every year and half of them are children under 5, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa. The vaccine has been approved for use specifically in children between 5 months and 36 months, the age group at the highest risk of death from malaria. Furthermore, it can be produced on a large scale and, precisely, at modest costs, which allows hundreds of millions of doses to be made available in those African countries most affected. “This vaccine marks the culmination of 30 years of malaria vaccine research in Oxford, with the design and delivery of a highly effective vaccine that can be on an appropriate scale to the countries that need it most. Our partnership with the Serum Institute has also been key to large-scale production and rapid development.” For his part, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute, assured “the commitment to increase the production of the vaccine to meet the needs of countries with a high burden of malaria and to support efforts to save lives”. A significant result also according to the Gavi Alliance – Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, a global cooperation body between public and private entities – which expects the results of phase III of the vaccine trial to be published shortly.
If WHO recommends wider use of the vaccine, Gavi and Unicef could start funding and procuring doses immediately, the organization says. Gavi, said director general Derrick Sim, «is ready to provide funding for the R21 vaccine. It’s also very crucial that the Serum Institute meets public commitments to keep the cost of the vaccine at $3 or less, to allow more people to be protected. As for the spread of the disease, notes the WHO, after a constant drop in infections, which saw the incidence in the population at risk pass from 82 cases per thousand inhabitants in 2000 to 57 in 2019, the pandemic has caused a sharp increase in infections. In absolute numbers, it went from 232 million cases in 2019 to 247 million in 2021. As regards deaths, they had been 568 thousand in 2019 and reached 625 thousand in 2020. In 2021, then, there was a downturn (619 thousand), but the values are still far from the pre-pandemic period. According to WHO estimates, between 2020 and 2021 at least 63 thousand deaths are attributable to the impact of Covid-19 on malaria contrast services. Approximately 76% of deaths concern children under the age of 5.