Hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved this decade thanks to a new malaria vaccine, the head of the jab development team has said.
Sir Adrian Hill, professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, said he hoped the vaccine, the second of its kind, would pave the way for a “really serious” attempt at eradicating the disease.
The vaccine, which has been hailed as a scientific breakthrough, is the first malaria vaccine to meet the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) target of 75% efficacy at preventing the disease.
The first doses were rolled out in the Ivory Coast on Monday, and were developed under Sir Adrian at the university’s Jenner Institute.
Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Sir Adrian said: “I think during this decade, we can knock half a million deaths a year right down to maybe 200,000 if things go well and then, ultimately, probably next decade will be a really serious attempt at eliminating and eradicating malaria.”
Named R21/Matrix-M, Sir Adrian described the vaccine as “the best vaccine we now have”.
He said: “It’s less expensive, it’s more available, and it works better. This is a vaccine that was designed and developed in 2012 and has been progressing since then.”
He said the vaccine is at a price point “where it’s realistic to roll this out in many tens of millions of doses from now on”.
The vaccine is given to children typically of five, six and seven months of age, four weeks apart, followed by a booster a year later.
It primes the blood with antibodies that target the malaria protein, known as circumsporozoite protein (CSP).
Sir Adrian said the low cost made the jab ideal for lower income countries.
He said: “Instead of this being nine or 10 (US) dollars, as with the original vaccine per dose, this is just under four dollars, and that makes a real difference in low-income countries.
“That’s why the development … is really important because everyone sees this as an affordable vaccine.”
Mehreen Datoo, a British infectious disease specialist who helped to invent the vaccine with the team at the Jenner Institute, contracted Malaria when she was in her twenties.
Speaking on a BBC documentary, Horizon: The Battle To Beat Malaria, Ms Datoo said: “My family are actually from East Africa. Unfortunately when I was doing some research there previously, I got malaria and I was very, very sick.
“I basically fainted and collapsed and then was diagnosed with severe malaria.
“I don’t remember a lot of it because I was just very, very unwell. I was in my early twenties so I can’t even imagine how it affects very young children.”
The vaccine works by targeting invading malaria pathogens in the first two-hour window when it enters the body. It induces the body to produce antibodies to neutralise the parasite by creating a strong immune response.
In 2020, the Jenner Institute created the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
