A groundbreaking malaria vaccine created by Britain’s Oxford University is about to be deployed in Ghana for the first time, marking the first time it has won regulatory approval anywhere in the world.
Professor Adrian Hill, director of the university’s Jenner Institute and chief investigator of the R21/Matrix-M vaccine programme, said it marked the “culmination of 30 years of malaria vaccine research at Oxford with the design and provision of a high efficacy vaccine that can be supplied at adequate scale to the countries that need it most.”
According to the multinational research team, the vaccine could be a game changer in the fight against the mosquito-borne parasitic disease that is responsible for the deaths of 627,000 people, largely African children, in 2020 alone.
“The vaccine has been approved for use in children aged 5-36 months, the age group at highest risk of death from malaria,” said Oxford University in a statement.
“It is hoped that this first crucial step will enable the vaccine to help Ghanaian and African children effectively combat malaria,” it continued.
Oxford stated in September that a booster dosage of the novel malaria vaccine maintained a high level of protection against the disease, expressing hope that the low-cost injection might be mass-produced in a few of years.
A separate GSK vaccine was the first to be recommended for widespread use against malaria by the World Health Organization in 2021, and it has now been provided to over a million children in Africa.
However, research has indicated that the effectiveness of GSK’s vaccination is roughly 60% and diminishes dramatically over time, even with a booster dosage.
Meanwhile, in study published last year, Oxford’s R21/Matrix-M vaccine was found to be 77 percent effective at preventing malaria, above the WHO’s % target.
