UNICEF signs malaria vaccine contract with GSK

GSK has been awarded the first-ever contract for the supply of a malaria vaccine from UNICEF. Under the one hundred and seventy million dollar contract, over the next three years, GSK will deliver nearly twenty million doses of RTS,S/AS01. According to UNICEF, almost 500,000 children died from malaria in Africa in 2020, so thousands of lives could be saved yearly from the supply contact.
Director of UNICEF’s Supply Division, Etleva Kadilli, has stated, “This vaccine rollout gives a clear message to malaria vaccine developers to continue their work because malaria vaccines are needed and wanted. We hope this is just the beginning. Continued innovation is needed to develop new and next-generation vaccines to increase available supply – and enable a healthier vaccine market. This is a giant step forward in our collective efforts to save children’s lives and reduce the burden of malaria as part of wider malaria prevention and control programmes.”
The RTS,S vaccine is the first-ever vaccine against a parasitic disease and is the result of 35 years of R&D. The vaccine acts against Plasmodium falciparum, the most prevalent malaria parasite in Africa and the deadliest malaria parasite worldwide.
In 2019, as part of the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, pilot routine vaccine use was introduced in Malawi, Kenya and Ghana. The evidence and experience produced by the pilots informed WHO’s commendation in late 2021 for extensive use of the first malaria vaccine in over thirty countries with high P. falciparum malaria transmission. Later on, Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance opened the pathway for a broader rollout of the vaccine after deciding to deliver funding for malaria vaccine programmes in eligible countries.
In affected countries, the demand for the malaria vaccine is expected to be high. Though with any new vaccine, supply is likely to be limited initially and will increase over time as manufacturing capacity increases to an appropriate level. Plans are already in effect to boost production, including through technology transfer, so that every child at risk from malaria will have the opportunity to be immunised.