Breakthrough Oxford malaria jab raises hopes of beating disease

The world’s first effective malaria vaccine is within sight, according to a groundbreaking new trial. The vaccine, developed in the UK and trialed in Africa, has raised hopes that we may soon be able to slash the death toll of a disease that kills around 400,000 mostly young children every year. Here’s what you need to know.

What do we know about the malaria vaccine?

In a phase two trial, 450 children in Burkina Faso aged five to 17 months old were given the malaria vaccine over the course of a year. According to the results, published in the Lancet journal, the vaccine was 77 per cent effective at stopping infection. 

The jab was developed by scientists at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, the same institute which led the research behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. 

Novavax, the biotech company and fellow Covid vaccine developer, was also involved in the project, supplying the adjuvant for the malaria vaccine – a substance that enhances the immune system response.

Why would this vaccine be such a game-changer?

The parasite disease, which is spread by mosquito bites, killed four times as many people in Africa as Covid did last year. 

Interventions such as malarial drugs, have lowered the death toll but the hunt for a malaria vaccine has dragged on for the best part of a century. 

This Oxford vaccine is the first ever to meet the World Health Organisation’s 75 per cent efficacy goal. 

Previously, the most successful attempt at a malaria jab was the Mosquirix vaccine, developed by GlaxoSmithKline, which has been through lengthy clinical trials. However, it has only prevented 39 per cent of malaria cases and 29 per cent of severe malaria cases among small children in Africa over four years.

Professor Adrian Hill, Director of the Jenner Institute, believes this new vaccine has the potential to cut the death toll dramatically. “What we’re hoping to do is take that 400,000 down to tens of thousands in the next five years, which would be absolutely fantastic.”

What will happen now?

Larger trials are beginning, involving 4,800 children across four countries. Prof Hill says the team hopes to report results of the final stage of the trial next year, adding that he is “pretty confident” that the efficacy could be replicated in the next phase. 

The team behind the new vaccine plans to apply to the World Health Organisation for approval for use in Africa.

According to Prof Hill, it would normally take three to five years to do a phase three trial – 300,000 children in Africa die every year of malaria. As a result, Prof Hill says they will try to speed up the process by seeking emergency approval, just as they did for the Covid vaccine. This means it could be approved within the next two years; the best-case scenario is approval by the end of 2022. 

“Nobody for a moment questioned whether Covid should have an emergency use review and authorisation in Africa,” argues Prof Hill, “so why shouldn’t a disease that firstly kills children rather than older people, and certainly killed an awful lot more, be prioritised for emergency use authorisation?”

If the malaria vaccine is approved, the Serum Institute of India has promised Oxford researchers that it will manufacture the shot at large scale and at low cost. 

The Institute, which is currently manufacturing the Oxford- AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, says it is “highly confident” that it “will be able to deliver more than 200m doses annually, as soon as regulatory approvals are available.”