WHO okays second malaria vaccine for children, to be mass-produced by India's Serum Institute

The World Health Organization on Monday (Oct 2) recommended a second malaria vaccine that will be mass-produced by Serum Institute of India, in a bid to curb the life-threatening vector-borne disease. The jab could offer countries a cheaper and more readily available option. The United Nations health agency also recommended a vaccine against dengue for children living in areas where the infection is a significant public health problem.

During a briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that theagency is approving the new malaria vaccine based on the recommendations of two expert groups which suggested its use in children at risk of the disease.

The announcement comes nearly two years after WHO recommended the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine RTS,S.

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Second malaria vaccine

“Today, it gives me great pleasure to announce that WHO is recommending a second vaccine called R21/Matrix-M to prevent malaria in children at risk of the disease,” said Tedros.

R21/Matrix-M – developed by Britain’s University of Oxford and mass manufactured by Serum Institute of India, and uses Novavax’s Matrix M adjuvant – will be available to countries by mid-2024, said the WHO chief.

“As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two,” said Tedros. The doses would cost between $2 and $4 and have already been approved for use in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria.

“WHO is now reviewing the vaccine for prequalification, which is WHO stamp of approval, and will enable GAVI (a global vaccine alliance) and UNICEF to buy the vaccine from manufacturers,” said Tedros.

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India told Reuters that they have already produced more than 20 million doses in anticipation of WHO’s recommendation and will ramp up production depending on the demand.

The UN health agency has also said that both vaccines have shown similar efficacy in separate trials but have not conducted any head-to-head trials to test which one performed better.

It is now up to the countries to decide which product they will use based on various factors including affordability and supply, said WHO.

About other vaccines

The WHO chief also said that the health agency is also recommending Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ Qdenga, a vaccine against dengue for children aged six to 16 years in areas where infection is prevalent.

Takeda’s vaccine was shown in trials to be effective against all four stereotypes of the virus in people who were previously infected by dengue, the chair of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, Hanna Nohynek, told reporters.

The WHO group also recommended a simplified single-dose regime for primary immunisation for most COVID-19 vaccines to improve acceptance of the shots at a time when most people have had at least one prior infection, reported Reuters.

(With inputs from agencies)

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