Several African nations are queuing up to give their approval for a novel malaria vaccine, as per the announcement made by the vaccine’s manufacturer to Reuters. An estimated 20 million doses of the vaccine will be made available for purchase by these countries this year.
This week, the pharmaceutical regulatory authority of Nigeria joined Ghana in endorsing the R21 vaccine, which makes them the first country in the world to do so. The vaccine has been developed by scientists at Oxford University and produced by the Serum Institute of India.
African nations with limited resources for drug regulation have traditionally relied on the United Nations agency to conduct initial evaluations of new medicines. However, there is currently a dearth of the publicly available information regarding the outcomes of large-scale trials of the malaria vaccine. Furthermore, it is unclear how low-income countries will be able to afford the cost of the vaccine.
The World Health Organization stated in a high-level meeting this week that regulatory authorities from at least 10 African countries are currently examining trial data to evaluate the vaccine. It is anticipated that additional countries will approve the vaccine in the next few weeks.