Ghana approves 'world-changer' malaria vaccine developed at Oxford University

From the same group of Oxford University scientists who brought us the Astra Zeneca coronavirus vaccination - there's now one for malaria that could save thousands more lives around the world

Ghana has become the first country to approve a highly effective malaria vaccine developed at Oxford university in the UK.

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine has been cleared for use by Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority in children aged 5-36 months, the group at highest risk of death from malaria.

The vaccine is first to exceed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) target of 75% efficacy and the breakthrough is considered a critical step towards reducing over half a million malaria-related deaths annually.

An estimated 619,000 people died from malaria in 2021, the vast majority of them children in sub-Saharan Africa, according to WHO.

In Ghana, where the disease is both endemic and perennial, an estimated 5.3 million cases and 12,500 estimated deaths were recorded.

Professor Adrian Hill, the director of the Jenner Institute, which is part of the Nuffield Department of medicine at Oxford University, said: “This marks a 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 who need it most.

"I congratulate our superb clinical trial partners in Africa who have generated the dataset supporting the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in children."

The R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine is a low-dose vaccine that can be manufactured at mass scale and at a low cost.

This will enable as many as hundreds of millions of doses to be supplied to African countries which are suffering from high levels of malaria.

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine was initially designed and developed at the University of Oxford and has undergone clinical trials in the UK, Thailand, and several African countries.

There are ongoing phase III trials in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali and Tanzania, that has enrolled 4,800 children, and the results from these trials are expected to be reported later this year.

The WHO is yet to recommend the R21/Matrix-M vaccine for widespread use.

Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of the Serum Institute, said the approval by authorities in Ghana is a "significant milestone" in the fight against malaria.

"Malaria is a life-threatening disease that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable populations in our society and remains a leading cause of death in childhood," Mr Poonawalla said.

"Developing a vaccine to greatly impact this huge disease burden has been extraordinarily difficult.

"The licensure of the R21/Matrix-M Malaria Vaccine for use in Ghana is a significant milestone in our efforts to combat malaria around the world.

"We remain steadfast in our commitment to scaling up production of the vaccine to meet the needs of countries with high malaria burden and to support global efforts towards saving lives."

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