Ghana has licensed the malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, becoming the first country to immunize children between the ages of 5 and 36 months with this new vaccine, it was announced Thursday.
It will be manufactured and marketed by the Serum Institute of India (the world’s largest vaccine producer), so it can be produced on a large scale and at low cost, allowing “the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to African countries with a significant burden of malaria”.
Specifically, a production capacity of “more than 200 million doses per year” has already been created.
The vaccine, called “R21/Matrix-M”, has undergone clinical trials in the UK, Thailand and several African countries, including an ongoing Phase III trial in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali and Tanzania, in which 4,800 children have enrolled. The results of these trials are expected to be reported “later this year.”
High levels of efficacy and safety were demonstrated in these phase II trials, even among children who received a booster dose of the vaccine one year after a three-dose primary regimen. It also met the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of being at least 75% effective.
“This marks the culmination of 30 years of malaria vaccine research at the University of Oxford, with the design and delivery of a highly effective vaccine that can be delivered on a large scale to the countries that need it most,” said Adrian. Hill, principal investigator of the “R21/Matrix-M” program and director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford.
The developers and producers of the vaccine hope their vaccine will be “a decisive step in reducing more than half a million malaria-related deaths annually and improving the health of millions of people in Africa and beyond.”
“Malaria is a life-threatening disease that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable populations in our society and remains one of the leading causes of child death,” they state.
Developing “a vaccine that will have a major impact on this enormous burden of disease has been an extraordinary challenge,” said Serum Institute of India Administrator Adar Poonawalla.
The vaccine contains Novavax’s “Matrix-M”, an adjuvant that stimulates the immune system response, making it more powerful and long-lasting. “Matrix-M” stimulates the entry of antigenic cells into the injection site and improves antigen presentation in local lymph nodes. This technology has also been used in Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine and is a key component of other vaccines in development.
“We are delighted that the ‘Matrix-M’ adjuvant has contributed to the success of this promising and much-needed malaria vaccine. We intend to unlock the potential of our adjuvant, both in the short term and over time, to further improve plus public health. said Novavax Chairman and CEO John C. Jacobs.
Source: TSF
