Indian vaccine manufacturers and suppliers, Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad, and Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune, have a large part to play in the malaria vaccination’s manufacturing and distribution across the world, suggest the reports.

On July 5, Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (Gavi), stated on their website that 18 million doses of the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine were allocated across 12 African countries for the period of 2023-2025.

However, the global malaria vaccination requirements are likely to reach 40-60 million by 2026. This is where Indian companies come into play. The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine is currently produced and supplied by GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), a British pharmaceutical giant.

The GSK and Bharat Biotech sign a product transfer agreement

According to a press release, the RTS,S antigen part of the vaccine will be manufactured by Bharat Biotech in the future, and AS01E, the adjuvant of the vaccine will be created by Bharat Biotech. This will help GSK’s commitments to donate up to 10 million vaccines to Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi and supply up to 15 million doses annually by 2028. 

Oxford University and SII working on another malaria vaccine

Another malaria vaccine, called R21/Matrix-M, is likely to be prequalified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) soon, said Gavi on its website. The R21/Matrix-M is developed by Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII). The vaccine has already received regulatory clearance in Ghana in Apr 2023. According to SII, the manufacturing capacity of the SII is 200 million doses annually.

RTS,S: The first widely used malaria vaccination

Malaria vaccinations such as SPf66 were around in 1960, but they were shown to be inefficient during clinical trials. Even the inception of RTS,S was in the late 1980s, by the scientists at SmithKline Beecham Biologicals (now GSK).

In Oct 2021, WHO suggested the ‘broad use’ of the vaccine in children, making it the first vaccine against malaria that would be used widely. Over one million children from Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi had taken at least one dose of this vaccine by Apr 2022.

African countries and malaria

African countries have been fighting malaria, spread by mosquitoes, for a long time. In 2021, according to WHO, 95% of malaria cases were reported from African countries only, and 96% of malaria deaths were also contributed to the continent. The vaccines that will be partly or wholly manufactured in India are likely to help these highly affected countries in Africa.

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