A new malaria vaccine has demonstrated high efficacy and good safety in a phase 3 trial conducted in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, and Tanzania. The vaccine, called R21/Matrix-M, showed an average efficacy of 78 percent among children aged 5-17 months during the first year of follow-up. These results, published in The Lancet, pave the way for the vaccine’s roll-out in the coming months.
The study, which involved immunizing over 4,800 children, revealed that the vaccine’s efficacy was consistent across all study sites and transmission environments. Notably, no other vaccine has achieved an efficacy rate exceeding 55 percent in the same age group. Furthermore, a booster dose per year maintained good efficacy for an additional 6-12 months.
In addition to its high efficacy, the R21/Matrix-M vaccine also demonstrated a potential ability to reduce malaria transmission. The infection rates among children were reduced at 12 and 18 months post-vaccination.
The trial’s safety data were also reassuring, with no serious adverse events linked to immunization. The most common adverse events were pain at the injection site and fever, and no deaths related to the treatment were reported.
With regulatory approval and licensing in several African countries on the horizon, the University of Oxford, along with the Serum Institute of India, is committed to making the vaccine available in regions where malaria poses a significant threat, particularly in Africa.
Malaria remains the leading cause of death among young African children, resulting in more than 600,000 fatalities worldwide each year. The development of an effective and safe vaccine like R21/Matrix-M offers hope in the fight against this deadly disease. As Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla stated, We are dedicated to making this vaccine available, especially in Africa, bringing us closer to a malaria-free world.
It is expected that the institute will begin the roll-out of at least 25 million doses within the next three to four months. The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, designed as an improvement to the earlier RTS, S/AS01 vaccine, has the potential to make a significant impact on global malaria control efforts, offering protection to vulnerable populations and contributing to the goal of a malaria-free world.
