UK Experts Hail "Unprecedented" Results Of Malaria Vaccine In Serum Institute Tie-Up

World Health Organization's (WHO) Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap goal for a vaccine is set at 75 per cent efficacy.

An under-trial malaria vaccine was on Friday hailed as delivering "unprecedented efficacy levels" to achieve the WHO specified goal of 75 per cent efficacy and is now set to enter the next stage of trials, in collaboration with the Serum Institute of India, to deliver its doses in the coming years. Researchers from the University of Oxford and partners reported the findings from a Phase IIb trial of the candidate malaria vaccine R21/Matrix-M to say that it had proved to be 77 per cent effective in over 12-months of follow-up. The researchers, in collaboration with the Serum Institute of India and Novavax Inc, have now started recruitment for a Phase III licensure trial to assess large-scale safety and efficacy in 4,800 children, aged 5-36 months, across four African countries. "These are very exciting results showing unprecedented efficacy levels from a vaccine that has been well tolerated in our trial programme," said Halidou Tinto, Professor in Parasitology, Regional Director of IRSS in Nanoro, and the trial Principal Investigator.