WHO Recommends new Malaria Vaccine for children which is cost-effective and efficient

In a significant development in the fight against malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a new vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, for the prevention of malaria in children. This recommendation follows advice from the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG).

The recommendation was based on pre-clinical and clinical trial data which showed good safety and high efficacy in four countries, at sites with both seasonal and perennial malaria transmission, making it the world’s second-ever WHO recommended vaccine for preventing malaria in children.

The R21/Matrix-MTM malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, leveraging Novavax’s adjuvant technology, has been recommended for use by the World Health Organization (WHO) after meeting required safety, quality and effectiveness standards.

The vaccine has recently reached the primary one-year endpoint in a pivotal large-scale Phase III clinical trial including 4,800 children across Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali and Tanzania. The Phase III trial results are under peer review before publication.

The vaccine was well tolerated with a good safety profile. The efficacy of the vaccine over 12 months was 75% (95% CI 71-79; p<0.001) at sites with high seasonal malaria transmission and 68% (61-74; p<0.001) at the sites with more perennial transmission using standard age-based administration.