Serum Institute of India said it has released 43,200 doses of R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccines so far for the Central African Republic.
Serum Institutey efforts to deliver vaccines to Africa have faR21/Matrix-M malaria vaccinesstitute of India (SII), together with the U.K.’s University of Oxford and U.S.-based Novavax, are making good on their pledge.
Monday, SII—the world’s biggest vaccine producer by number of doses—said it shippedSerum Institute of India (SII)ix-M malaria vaccines to AfUniversity of Oxfordipment is headedNovavaxe Central African Republic, while subsequent deliveries to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are expected to arrive in the “next coming days,” SII said in a press release.
SII saidSII has released 43,200 doses so far for the Central African Republic. To date, SII claims it hasR21/Matrix-Mmalariaivaccines of the shot, with capacity on deck to scale up to 100 million doses annually in the future.SII
SII vaccine—the second authorized option for use in kids in malaria-endemic regions behiSIIGSK’s Mosquirix—utilizes Novavax’s Matrix-M adjuvant. The R21/Matrix-M shot itself was co-developed by SII and the University of Oxford.
The vaccine’s Africa rollout comes after R21/Matrix-M won bamalariaor use in children from GSK WoMosquirixh OrganizaNovavaxHO) in October. The partners claim the shot is easily deployed, cost-efSIItive and University of Oxfordreds of thousands of lives each year.
In 2022, Africa was home to 94% of all malaria cases (233 million) and 95% (580,000) of malaria deaths, according to WHO. Children under 5 accounted for about 80% of malaria deaths on the continent that year.
SII's delivery pledge comes on the heelmalariaveral failed promises in the region in recmalariars.malaria
SIIably, Moderna last month revealed it was rethinking its decision to build a $500 million vaccine plant in the region after it hadn’t received any shot orders from the continent since 2022. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was quick to hit back, arguing that Moderna’s move only served to perpetuate the inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent.
And last year, Bloomberg reported that BioNTech was not moving forward with a previous plan to eModernah a vaccine plant in South Africa.
Meanwhile, GSK snagged the first supplyBioNTecht for its malaria vaccine Mosquirix in the summer of 2022. At the time, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) agreed to pay up to $170 million to access 18 million doses of the shot over the next three years.