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Anneliese Dodds ©House of Commons
As part of her visit, Ms Dodds met with Professor Adrian Hill and his team who developed the R21/matrix-M malaria vaccine, one of the two, alongside RTS,S, which began rollout across malaria-endemic countries last year.
Professor Hill and his team discussed the importance of the R21 malaria vaccine, the challenges they faced in developing it and the progress of the current deployment. Both malaria vaccines have now reached 17 countries, which experience nearly three quarters (around 70%) of the burden of the disease, according to data published by Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.
Projections estimate that malaria vaccines will save tens of thousands of children’s lives every year as the rollout is scaled-up, working most effectively in combination with other tools like insecticide treated bed nets and antimalarial medicines.
In addition, they discussed new innovations currently in the pipeline being developed by the Jenner team, including ‘second-generation’ vaccines which aim to provide an additional line of defence against malaria and improving overall efficacy, when used in combination with existing vaccines. They do this by fighting the disease in the bloodstream, should it evade protection provided by existing vaccines which target the earlier liver-stage.
The campaigning organisation, Malaria No More UK, who were also in attendance, released research earlier this month demonstrating the UK’s leadership in malaria science. The figures showed that through both public and philanthropic sources, the UK has also invested a record high in malaria vaccine research and development with £5.5 million spent in 2023, the third highest of any country.
Ms Dodds said: ‘It was inspiring to see how work undertaken in Oxford East at the Jenner Institute is making an enormous difference for people at risk of severe illness or death from diseases like malaria. Indeed, given the work they are undertaking, the dream of eradicating malaria really does not feel fanciful any more. I’m very proud of the role that the UK is playing towards the eradication of malaria, and particularly of researchers, scientists, lab technicians and those willing to take part in clinical trials within my own constituency.’
Professor Adrian Hill, Lakshmi Mittal & Family Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the Jenner Institute, said: ‘We were delighted to take this opportunity to welcome Anneliese Dodds and discuss the impact of the new high efficacy, low cost R21 malaria vaccine from the Jenner Institute that is now being rolled out at large scale in Africa. And we also presented the world-leading pipeline of new blood-stage and transmission-blocking vaccines from Oxford that will also be important in eliminating malaria in the coming years.’
Dr Astrid Bonfield, CEO of Malaria No More UK, said: ‘Malaria science represents Britain at its best: world leading expertise backed by the UK government to cutting-edge innovations which save lives across the world and foster economic growth. 2025 is a crossroads moment in our fight to end malaria as key funding bodies, like the Global Fund and Gavi, have their budgets replenished for the years ahead. This is why we need the UK government to maintain its commendable leadership and ensure these organisations are fully backed to get the malaria fight back on track.’