WHO Recommends Second Vaccine to Prevent Malaria, Will be Launched Next Year

Giving the Malaria vaccine in Angola. (Wikimedia Commons/USAID Africa Bureau)

JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday recommended the use of a second malaria vaccine, to curb the deadly disease which is transmitted to humans through mosquitoes.

"Almost exactly two years ago, WHO recommended widespread use of the world's first malaria vaccine called RTS,S," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, reported by Reuters, October 3.

"Today, I am very happy to announce that WHO recommends a second vaccine called R21/Matrix-M to prevent malaria in children who are at risk of developing this disease," he said.

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by Britain's Oxford University, will be available in mid-2024, said Dr. Tedros, adding that the price per dose is between 2-4 US dollars.

"WHO is now reviewing the vaccine for prequalification, which is WHO's stamp of approval, and will allow GAVI (the global vaccine alliance) and UNICEF to purchase the vaccine from the manufacturer," explained Dr. Tedros.

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine is mass produced by the Serum Institute of India and uses Novavax's Matrix M support material

Meanwhile, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla said that his party had produced more than 20 million doses in anticipation of WHO recommendations.

"We will scale it up as demand requires," he said in an interview.

"We hope that by the end of 2024, there will no longer be a mismatch between demand and supply, with our supply entering the system," he continued.

Previously, WHO had recommended the RTS,S vaccine produced by GSK Plc., in 2021 and sold under the Mosquirix brand.

The WHO said the two vaccines showed similar efficacy in separate trials, but without direct trials, there was no evidence to show whether either vaccine performed better.

The UN agency leaves it up to individual countries to decide which products to use based on various factors, including affordability and supply.

"GSK has always been aware of the need for a second malaria vaccine, but it is increasingly clear that RTS,S, the first malaria vaccine and the first vaccine against human parasites, is a strong benchmark," GSK explained in a statement.

The company added that more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have received at least one dose of the shot. Early next year, vaccine rollout will be carried out in nine other malaria endemic countries starting early next year.

It is known that malaria kills more than 600,000 people every year globally. Most of them are children in Africa.