There were about 597,000 malaria deaths globally in 2023 as estimated by WHO with the great majority of these in Africa, and mostly in children. Malaria is a particularly unfair driver of greater human inequity, predominantly affecting not just many of the lowest income countries in the world, but within these the rural poor, and amongst these killing mostly young children. On top of this mortality burden, there were over 263 million clinical cases of malaria in 2023. This impact of malaria occurs despite over $4 billion dollars now being spent annually on malaria control. Insecticide and drug resistance as well as the effects of COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the stalling of malaria control and elimination progress. New tools are needed to address this unacceptable disease burden with vaccines as the most attractive short to medium-term solution. Following tremendous collaborative research efforts, there are now two WHO pre-qualified malaria vaccines, RTS,S/AS01 (MosquirixTM) and R21/Matrix-M, which are anticipated to greatly accelerate malaria control efforts following introductions in high to moderate malaria transmission settings.
The UltiMalVax consortium, with complementary support from other funders, builds on the recent achievements of MosquirixTM and R21/Matrix-M vaccines and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic to design what could be the “ultimate” vaccine needed for malaria elimination and eradication. In this ambitious, accelerated, research programme the consortium will develop the first vaccine with clinical efficacy in preventing both P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria, which would also impact the transmission of both parasites with a single vaccine formulation.
