- Ivory Coast on Monday launched a routine malaria vaccination programme using the world’s second vaccine developed to prevent malaria.
- About 15 African countries are set to introduce one of the two currently available malaria vaccines this year.
- The introduction of a second vaccine marks a major milestone in the global fight against malaria, but demand for the vaccine is expected to far exceed supply for years to come.
The world’s second malaria vaccine was launched on Monday, as Côte d’Ivoire began a routine vaccination programme using a vaccine developed by Oxford University and the Serum Institute of India.
The introduction of the World Health Organization (WHO)-approved R21 vaccine comes six months after the first malaria vaccine, called RTS,S, developed by British pharmaceutical company GSK, began being administered routinely in Cameroon.
About 15 African countries are set to introduce one of two malaria vaccines this year, with support from Gavi, the Global Vaccine Alliance.
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Côte d’Ivoire has received 656,600 doses of the Oxford-Serum vaccine, which will initially be administered to 250,000 children aged 0-23 months in the West African country. The vaccine is also approved in Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
The introduction of the second vaccine is the latest milestone in the global fight against malaria, and should help solve a problem that emerged long before either of the two vaccines were introduced: demand for vaccines is likely to far exceed supply for years to come.
Ivory Coast Prime Minister Robert Bouglé Mambe (center) attends the official launch ceremony of a malaria vaccination campaign targeting children aged 0-11 months on July 15, 2024 in Abobo, Abidjan district, Ivory Coast. (Reuters/Luc Nyago)
Experts say a safe and effective malaria vaccine, which is intended to be used alongside existing measures such as bed nets to combat the disease, which kills about half a million children under the age of five in Africa each year, is key to meeting demand.
The Serum Institute of India, which is making the vaccine, is producing 25 million doses for the initial rollout of the vaccine and is “committed to increasing production to 100 million doses per year,” the company said on Monday as inoculations began in Ivory Coast.
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Serum said it will offer the vaccine for less than $4 per dose, in line with its goal of providing a low-cost vaccine at scale.
Results from a large trial in February showed that the vaccine prevented about three-quarters of malaria cases in young children a year after they were vaccinated.
Experts told Reuters at the time that while it was difficult to directly compare the two malaria vaccines because of the many variables involved in the trials, their overall effectiveness was similar, a conclusion backed by the WHO.
