According to Reuters, the World Health Organization (WHO) just rolled out the authorized R21 malaria vaccine, barely six months after the RTS,S malaria vaccine manufactured by British manufacturer GSK (GSK.L) began being provided routinely in Cameroon.
With the support of the Gavi global vaccination alliance, 15 African nations intend to begin administering one of the two malaria vaccines this year.
Ivory Coast recently received 656,600 doses of the Oxford and Serum vaccine, which will first immunize 250,000 infants aged 0 to 23 months across the West African country. Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic have all authorized the vaccine.
Regarding its official launch in Côte d’Ivoire the vaccine’s manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, “is committed to scaling up to 100 million doses annually” and has created 25 million doses for the initial shipment of the shot, the company announced on Monday.
In terms of staying with its goal of offering inexpensive vaccinations at scale, Serum indicated that it is providing the vaccine for less than $4 per dose.
An experiment showed earlier this year that the vaccine avoided almost three-quarters of symptomatic malaria cases in young children, a year after receiving the doses.
First malaria vaccine
Back in January, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the use of the RTS,S vaccine, which pharmaceutical giant GSK created. This vaccine and other malaria prevention measures such as mosquito nets are being used to help eradicate the disease. The effort has been in the works for almost four decades.
According to the International Vaccine Alliance Gavi, Cameroon is the first country to provide doses as part of a routine vaccination program, which 19 other countries plan to implement in 2024 after successful trials in Ghana and Kenya.
6.6 million children in these countries are scheduled to get malaria vaccines between 2024 and 2025.
