Roll-out of affordable malaria vaccine begins

"A malaria-free world is finally within sight"

(Image credit: Indanil Mukherjee / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

Babies in the Ivory Coast and South Sudan will begin receiving doses of the world's first affordable malaria vaccine from today. R21, approved for children under three, costs around $4 a dose and is up to 79% effective at preventing the disease.

Who said what

"A malaria-free world is finally within sight," Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of India-based manufacturer the Serum Institute, said to The Times. "It's been long awaited, but here we finally are," said Adrian Hill, the director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, who has been working on malaria vaccines for 30 years.

R21 has a "huge advantage" over the only other malaria jab, said The Times. RTS,S, developed by British drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline, is more than twice as expensive and manufacturing capacity is limited to six million doses a year, compared with 100 million for R21.

What next?

Fifteen African countries will have introduced the R21 vaccine by the end of the year, with another 15 due to follow. Trials for pregnant women will start in the coming weeks.

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Arion McNicoll is a freelance writer at The Week Digital and was previously the UK website’s editor. He has also held senior editorial roles at CNN, The Times and The Sunday Times. Along with his writing work, he co-hosts “Today in History with The Retrospectors”, Rethink Audio’s flagship daily podcast, and is a regular panellist (and occasional stand-in host) on “The Week Unwrapped”. He is also a judge for The Publisher Podcast Awards.