OXFORD, UK
The co-inventor of a vaccine
that could eradicate malaria has said he hopes it could be approved by as early
as next year after the latest trial results were successful.
Professor Adrian Hill,
co-creator of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, said it was “the best [malaria]
vaccine yet”. He has previously said he believes R21 could help to reduce
deaths from the disease by 70% by 2030 and eradicate it by 2040.
But speaking as the success of
the R21
vaccine tests were revealed, Hill, director of Oxford University’s
Jenner Institute, said it would be tragic if Britain cut funding just as
scientists were poised to make “a real impact” against malaria. He has implored
the new British prime minister Liz Truss not to squander cutting-edge UK
innovation by “turning off the taps” on global health funding.
Results from testing in Burkina Faso showed
that R21 – already shown to be 77% effective after the initial doses –
maintains its high efficacy after a single booster jab.
Researchers hope that the
vaccine could be approved by the World Health Organization
next year, assuming a larger ongoing trial throws up no unexpected problems.
But Hill also cautioned that
getting the vaccine into the arms of tens of millions of African children who
most need it would be a challenge without funding.
The body that provides more than half of all financing for the world’s malaria programmes, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has warned that unless it receives significantly more money from leading donor countries such as the UK at its pledging conference this month, it will not be able to get the fight against those diseases back on track after the Covid pandemic.
The UK has not yet said what
it will pledge in New York, but the fund is thought to have asked for about
£1.8bn. As foreign secretary, Truss outlined a
strategy for overseas aid marked by an overall spending reduction and
a retreat from the funding of multilateral organisations like the Global Fund.
“It’s incredibly important
that the Global Fund is properly refunded. What they do is absolutely amazing,”
said Hill. “I hope the new prime minister will be very keen to recognise the
importance of doing what the UK [the fund’s third-biggest donor] has done so
well in the past.”
Another British-made malaria
vaccine with more modest efficacy levels, GSK’s
RTS,S, approved by the WHO last year, is poised to be more widely deployed
from next year. “The two leading vaccines in the world for malaria are [from] a
UK-headquartered company and a UK university,” Hill said.
“The UK is good at this stuff
… It would be tragic if suddenly, as new tools become available, and we can
have a real impact – and that’s not hard to see now by getting these [vaccines]
out there – if we were to just we turn off the taps on funding. And there is a
risk of that.”
Gareth Jenkins, director of
advocacy at Malaria No More UK, echoed Hill’s appeal, saying that “for new
British inventions to achieve their potential, British leadership must
continue”, starting at the Global Fund conference, to be hosted by the US
president, Joe Biden.
“This will be the new PM’s
first foreign policy test – for the sake of millions of children’s lives,
global health security and British relations with its closest ally, it’s a test
she cannot fail,” he added.
Scientists have been trying to
find a good vaccine against malaria for about a century, with the first
clinical trial taking place in the 1940s. The disease kills hundreds of
thousands of people every year, mostly children under five in sub-Saharan
Africa.
R21, the first malaria vaccine
to meet a WHO efficacy target of 75%, is licensed to the Serum Institute of
India. It is ready to manufacture at least 200m doses annually from next year
if the jab is given the green light after results from the wider trial, expected
later this year.
Prof Halidou Tinto, regional
director of the health sciences research institute (IRSS) in Nanoro, and the
Burkina Faso trial principal investigator, said that while production was not
expected to be an issue, the big challenge for poor African countries was how
to fund the vaccine’s rollout. “This may be … the issue that could delay the
deployment,” he said.
The trial in Burkina Faso
involved more than 400 children aged between five and 17 months getting three
doses of the vaccine in 2019, followed by a single booster shot 12 months
later, largely before the peak of the malaria season.
The results, published in the
Lancet Infectious Diseases, show that in those children given a booster shot
with a higher dose of an immunity-boosting adjuvant the vaccine proved 80%
effective. That figure fell to 70% in those who were given a booster with a
lower dose of the adjuvant.
No serious side-effects were
noted, researchers said.
A spokesperson for the
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “As the third largest donor
to the Global Fund the UK has invested £4.1bn to date to fight Aids,
tuberculosis, and malaria around the world. We will continue to support its
vitally important work.” – The Guardian
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