Why a Second Malaria Vaccine Matters

When the World Health Organization endorsed a new malaria vaccine in September, it opened the door to another powerful tool to fight the disease, which kills nearly 500,000 children annually, most of them in poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa.  

The new vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, is the second to earn WHO approval, following the release of RTS,S in 2021. Many health officials and researchers are praising the new vaccine, which has a higher efficacy rate than the original. R21 was shown to reduce symptomatic cases of malaria by 75% in areas with highly seasonal transmission, compared to 55% for the first vaccine, according to the WHO.

But Steve Taylor, M.D., who leads the Duke Malaria Collaboratory, says access may be another advantage, noting that some countries haven’t been able to secure sufficient quantitates of the RTS,S vaccine. “Having a second vaccine on the market could boost supply,” he says.

In this Quick Take video, Taylor, an associate professor of medicine and global health at DGHI, discusses why the approval of a second vaccine is an important moment in the fight against malaria, especially for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Beyond its potential effectiveness and availability, Taylor says the introduction of a new malaria vaccine also “signals to vaccine developers that there is still space for improvements to the current vaccines.”