UNITED KINGDOM –The fight against malaria has received another breakthrough after scientists at Oxford University developed a cheaper vaccine that can be manufactured at a greater scale.
The vaccine, known as R21, was shown to have efficacy as high as 80% one year after a fourth dose was administered to some 400 infants aged 5 to 17 months in Burkina Faso, according to a study published by the peer-reviewed medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
They were split into three groups, two receiving different doses of the Matrix-M adjuvant, a vaccine ingredient patented by Novavax and also used in the United States biotech firm’s COVID-19 jab. The third control group received a rabies vaccine.
Oxford’s R21/Matrix-M vaccine meanwhile has been found to be 77 percent effective at preventing malaria– the first time the WHO’s roadmap goal of 75 percent had been met.
“We think these data are the best data yet in the field with any malaria vaccine,” said Prof Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at the university.
The Oxford vaccinologist also added that the vaccine meant, “we really could be looking at a very substantial reduction in that horrendous burden of malaria, deaths, and disease in the coming years, certainly by 2030.”
A 70 percent reduction in deaths from malaria could be feasible in that time, he said, partly because of the vast number of vaccine doses that could be quickly produced.
Oxford has partnered with the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, which is reportedly willing and able to manufacture 200 million doses a year starting next year.
The new vaccine can offer protection for two years and has been referred to as a ‘game changer in the fight against the disease.’
The international research team suggested the vaccine, developed by Britain’s Oxford University, could represent a turning point in the fight against the mosquito-borne parasitic disease, which killed 627,000 people –– mostly African children –– in 2020 alone.
Last year a different vaccine produced by British pharmaceutical giant GSK became the first to be recommended for widespread use against malaria by the World Health Organization and has now been given prequalification by the UN agency.
However, research has found that the effectiveness of GSK’s vaccine is around 60 percent, and significantly wanes over time even with a booster dose.
The six to 10 million doses that GSK can produce a year is “not enough for 40 million children who need four doses in the first year,” Hill added.
And the Oxford vaccine would likely cost a few US dollars a dose, less than half the US$9 for GSK’s version, he said. The challenge of getting those doses into arms would require more funding, he added.
The Oxford team will start getting approvals for the vaccine, with the final decision pegged on the results of a larger trial sampling 4,800 children planned before the end of the year.
Over 100 malaria vaccine candidates have entered clinical trials over recent decades but none has shown the >75% efficacy targeted by World Health Organization’s Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap.
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