First Malaria Shots From Biggest Vaccine Maker Deployed in Africa

(Bloomberg) — Ivory Coast has become the first country to deploy a malaria shot developed by Serum Institute of India Ltd., the world’s largest vaccine maker, and the University of Oxford.

The first doses of the R21 immunization were administered on Monday to children in Abidjan, the commercial capital of the West African country, the developers and their partners said in a statement — the second malaria vaccine to go into use.

“The new vaccine has been authorized by Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic, and many others are preparing to receive shipments,” they said in the statement. A total of 656,600 doses have been received, which will initially vaccinate 250,000 children from newborns to 23 months across 16 regions of Ivory Coast.

The vaccine was recommended in 2023 by the World Health Organization for use in Africa for children under five years old, the age group there that bears the brunt of a disease that kills more than 600,000 people per year. In Ivory Coast alone, four people a day die from the disease, according to the country’s health ministry.

Malaria has been one of the world’s neglected diseases, with 95% of cases and 96% of deaths occurring in Africa — many of them in the poorer countries of the continent. Yet the lack of a lucrative commercial market has meant relatively little impetus for the development of a vaccine.  

It’s also been a tricky target for vaccine makers. The parasites that cause the deadly disease are prone to mutations that allow them to develop resistance to treatments. In 2022, the WHO formally endorsed Mosquirix, the first vaccine for the disease, which was developed by GSK Plc and its partners. 

Serum has produced 25 million doses and has undertaken to scale up to 100 million annually. The immunization uses an adjuvant developed by Novavax Inc. to help raise an immune response to malaria, and specifically targets a version of the parasite that’s prevalent in Africa.

The cost will be less than $4 a shot, cheaper than what’s currently available, with three doses to be taken by children between five and 36 months of age, followed by a booster a year later. The vaccine’s efficacy was shown in a clinical trial to be as high as 80% a year after the fourth dose was administered. 

The shots will primarily be distributed with the help of international health organizations such as Gavi, the vaccine alliance, the WHO, the Global Fund and Unicef. 

“Fifteen African countries are expected to introduce malaria vaccines with Gavi support in 2024, and countries plan to reach around 6.6 million children with the malaria vaccine in 2024 and 2025,” the developers said. “Gavi and partners are working with more than 30 African countries that have expressed interest in introducing the malaria vaccine.”

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