By Promise Eze
Ghana on Thursday said it is the first country in the world to approve a new malaria vaccine from Oxford University, with children under the age of three-years-old in line to benefit.
R21/Matrix-M has shown great success during its trials in Burkina Faso. While the WHO’s threshold is 75% efficacy, its effectiveness stood at 77% when administered in three doses.
The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 600,000 people each year, most of them children in Africa, and scientists have been trying for years to develop vaccines.
However, Oxford scientist, Adrian Hill said Ghana’s drug regulator has approved it for the age group at highest risk of death from malaria, children aged 5 months to 36 months.
It has a deal with Serum Institute of India to produce up to 200 million doses annually.
This is the first time a major vaccine has been approved first in an African country ahead of rich nations, Hill said.
It was unusual that a regulatory authority in Africa had reviewed the data quicker than the WHO, he added.
It was unusual that a regulatory authority in Africa had reviewed the data quicker than the WHO, he added.
“Particularly since COVID, African regulators have been taking a much more proactive stance, they’ve been saying…we don’t want to be last in the queue,’’ Hill said.
The first malaria vaccine, Mosquirix from British drugmaker GSK (GSK.L), was endorsed by the WHO in 2022 after decades of work.
However, lack of funding and commercial potential thwarted the company’s capacity to produce as many dose as needed.
GSK has committed to produce up to 15 million doses of Mosquirix every year through 2028, well under the roughly 100 million doses a year of the four-dose vaccine the WHO says is needed long-term to cover around 25 million children.
Ghana, Kenya and Malawi were all involved in the pilot programme for the roll-out of Mosquirix, and have begun rolling it out more widely in recent months.
Since it began in 2019, 1.2 million children across the three countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
