Malaria vaccine RH5.1/Matrix-M is effective in preventing malaria in African children (new preprint)

The Draper group, working with Professor Halidou Tinto’s team at the Clinical Research Unit at Nanoro in Burkina Faso, are pleased to announce the results of our latest blood-stage malaria vaccine trial have been uploaded to MedRXiv. This work was supported by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research at the National Institutes for Health, and the Serum Institute of India, and funded through the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership Multi-Stage Malaria Vaccine Consortium.

In this trial, RH5.1/Matrix-M, the Draper group’s most advanced malaria vaccine, was tested in hundreds of children living in Burkina Faso. Healthy children aged 5-17 months received three doses of the vaccine in two different schedules (either 0-1-2 months or 0-1-5 months).

In the six months following the final vaccination, the study showed that the RH5.1/Matrix-M vaccine reduced malaria infections by more than 50% when given in the 0-1-5 month schedule. A smaller reduction was seen when the vaccine was given in the 0-1-2 month schedule.

Importantly, this study is the first time a “blood-stage” malaria vaccine has been shown to significantly reduce malaria infections when tested in African children, demonstrating that this type of vaccine can be effective in the field and marking a substantial step forward in malaria prevention. Further testing of RH5.1/Matrix-M is now vital, including in combination with the currently used vaccines, in order to develop the next generation of highly effective malaria vaccines.