Key Highlights
- The WHO said it will recommend the trials which the recently approved R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine will still need to undergo.
- The WHO Country Representative to Nigeria insisted that proper policy funding and education is needed to combat malaria in Nigeria and Africa.
- Mulombo noted that 96% of world deaths and 95% of world infections from malaria took place in Africa, with Nigeria contributing to 79% of Africa’s unvaccinated children.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine which was recently given provisional approval by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) still needs to undergo more trials.
The trials are to be recommended by WHO.
According to Channels, this was made known by the WHO Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo, while briefing journalists at the UN House in Abuja on Tuesday, April 25, 2023.
This is coming about a week after the Federal Government approved the new malaria vaccine developed at the University of Oxford, making Nigeria the second country to do so after Ghana.
Mulombo also restated the importance and efficacy of the RTSS vaccine adopted by countries like Ghana and Kenya.
Proper funding needed to combat malaria
Mulombo reiterated the need for proper policy funding and education in the efforts to get Nigeria and Africa to zero malaria as the joins the rest of the world to mark World Malaria Day during Africa Vaccines Week and World Immunisation Week.
He noted that 96% of world deaths and 95% of world infections from malaria took place in Africa, with Nigeria contributing to 79% of Africa’s unvaccinated children.
NAFDAC’s earlier approval
The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, had on April 17, 2023, announced the approval of the R21 malaria vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
Professor Adeyeye said the vaccine is indicated for the prevention of clinical malaria in children from 5 months to 36 months of age.
She said the country expects to get at least 100,000 doses of the vaccine in donations soon before the market authorisation will start making other arrangements with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.
- Adeyeye said “NAFDAC in exercising its mandate as stipulated by its enabling law, NAFDAC Act CapN1, LFN 2004 is granting registration approval for R21 Malaria Vaccine (Recombinant, Adjuvanted) manufactured by Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.
- “The Marketing Authorization Holder is Fidson Healthcare Ltd in line with the Agency’s Drug and Related Products Registration Regulation 2021.
- “The R21 Malaria vaccine is an adjuvanted protein vaccine presented as a sterile solution. A dose which is 0.5ml is composed of R21 Malaria antigen 5µg and Matrix-M1 50µg as an adjuvant filled in a vial as a ready-to-use liquid formulation for intramuscular injection.
- “The vaccine is indicated for the prevention of clinical malaria in children from 5 months to 36 months of age. The storage temperature of the vaccine is 2-8 °C.”
