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GSK malaria vaccine to roll-out following pilot programme

The World Health Organization gives the green light
October 11, 2021
  • WHO recommends widespread use of malaria vaccine
  • Product transfer underway with Bharat Biotech of India

Though estimates differ widely, it is generally accepted that malaria has claimed more human lives than any other disease in history. Not smallpox, not tuberculosis, nor the common flu – genus plasmodium has been carrying us off in huge numbers for millennia. There is even speculation that falciparum malaria (the deadliest form of malaria species in humans) could have contributed to the fall of Rome.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly half of the world's population is at risk of contracting malaria, and that in the year prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, there were around 229m cases of malaria worldwide. Progress has been made in reducing contraction rates through degrading the habitats of mosquitoes, the natural vector, but WHO admits that there has been “stagnation in progress against the deadly disease”. Insecticide programmes, though effective, are costly and have attendant risks to human health through water pollution.

Good news, then, that WHO is recommending widespread use of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high transmission rates.

Mosquirix, developed by GSK, was approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2015. The WHO announcement follows an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800,000 children since 2019. Data indicate that the vaccine, combined with administration of antimalarial therapies, lowers clinical episodes of malaria, hospital admissions with severe malaria, and deaths by around 70 per cent.

It is the first vaccine aimed at a parasitic infection and modelling estimates that it will be cost effective, a key consideration given that many of the highest infection rates are recorded in frontier economies. GSK has committed to donate up to 10m doses for use in the pilots, and to supply up to 15m doses annually, available at no more than 5 per cent above the cost of production.

The vaccine is the result of 30-years of research, and a 'product transfer', including technology transfer for long-term antigen production, is now underway with Bharat Biotech of India. The effective green light by WHO is significant from a clinical perspective, but it is difficult to assess any financial implication at this stage, though the news has obviously been welcomed by all parties. Hold at 1,396p.

Last IC view: Hold, 1,395p, 28 Jul 2021