Malaria vaccine: Long-Term Supply, Affordability Concerns

(CTN News) – Vaccine alliance Gavi published an updated paper yesterday, on World Malaria Vaccine Day. The paper outlines how the world can increase supply in the next few years through increasing the number of manufacturers and ensuring predictable demand.

Gavi’s CEO, Dr. Seth Berkley, said: “The world has been working on malaria vaccines for more than 50 years.”. Yet if malaria vaccines are to be made available to every child, we must act now.”

In the paper, it stated: “The world’s first effective vaccine is now available, but supply must increase significantly to meet demand.”

According to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, 40-60 million vaccine doses will be needed by 2026 alone, and 80-100 million vaccine doses will be needed each year by 2030.

The white paper outlines the actions government, vaccine manufacturers and health agencies must take in order to meet this goal.

Despite concerted efforts, malaria remains one of Africa’s biggest killers, killing 475,000 children under five in 2021 alone.

Developing and manufacturing the world’s first vaccine, RTS,S/AS01e, which took more than three decades to develop, and prequalifying it will save lives, and a second vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, developed and manufactured by Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), could also be prequalified and recommended by WHO shortly.”

Gavi believes that supply is the major impediment to widespread malaria vaccine distribution in endemic countries. A production target of 40-60 million doses by 2026 is needed to meet countries’ needs, increasing to 80-100 million doses by 2030, according to Gavi’s market shaping roadmap.

To achieve such a result, countries and partners must work together on key areas such as forecasting demand, increasing suppliers, and transferring technology.

Gavi also commits to providing additional co-financing to ensure countries can access doses, supporting countries to make timely applications, and fostering further innovation in malaria vaccination and integration with existing interventions.

The World Health Organization (WHO), marking World Malaria Day yesterday, called for greater implementation of new and existing interventions to prevent malaria.

Hundreds of thousands of children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi at high risk of malaria illness have now received their first dose of the first malaria vaccine, RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S), as part of a WHO-coordinated pilot program.

By increasing equity in access to malaria prevention, the malaria vaccine pilot programs were launched in 2019. Each year, malaria could save the lives of tens of thousands of children if they were widely implemented.

A package of interventions are available to drive down malaria, including vector control, preventive medicines, testing, and treatment, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Tens of thousands of children could be saved every year by a safe and effective malaria vaccine. By investing sustainably and scaling up efforts, malaria can be eradicated in many countries.”

Achieving the 2030 global malaria targets will require continued investment in the development and deployment of new malaria vaccines and next-generation tools.

It is possible that a second malaria vaccine, the R21/Matrix-M (R21) vaccine, may help decrease child illness and mortality from malaria if it is approved. When additional key safety and efficacy data are available from the ongoing R21 phase 3 trial, WHO will continue the thorough and efficient expert review of the vaccine R21.

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