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VaxIQ/Malaria (R21/RTS,S)
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Malaria (R21/RTS,S)

Malaria Vaccine R21/Matrix-M and RTS,S/AS01

Tier 1 · EPI/CoreVaccineCuration in progress

Platform: Recombinant protein + adjuvant

Vaccine that protects against Plasmodium falciparum malaria, a leading cause of childhood mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.

malariaCSPMatrix-MWHO approvedAfrica

PubMed References

PMID 37952234Genton. R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine WHO goal 2030. J Travel Med 2023.

Immunology Sections

Curated section analysis in progress

Structured immunology sections — mechanism, immune response, molecular signatures, correlates of protection, and more — are being prepared by the Precision Vaccines Program team. In the meantime, verified references and live literature from PubMed, Semantic Scholar, and Wikipedia are available below.

MechanismImmune ResponseMolecular & Immune SignaturesCorrelates of ProtectionOpen QuestionsImmunogenicitySafetyInfection Immunology

Verified References

PMID 37952234Genton. R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine WHO goal 2030. J Travel Med 2023.

Wikipedia Overview

Full article ↗

A Malaria vaccine is a vaccine that prevents malaria, a mosquito-borne infectious disease which affected an estimated 249 million people globally in 85 malaria-endemic countries and areas and caused 608,000 deaths in 2022. The first approved vaccine for malaria is RTS,S, known by the brand name Mosquirix. As of April 2023, the vaccine has been given to 1.5 million children living in areas with moderate-to-high malaria transmission. It requires at least three doses in infants by age 2, and a fourth dose extends the protection for another 1–2 years. The vaccine reduces hospital admissions from severe malaria by around 30%.

PubMed Literature

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Semantic Scholar

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The effect of disease transmission on time-aggregated treatment efficacy estimates: a critical analysis of factors influencing the RTS,S and R21 malaria vaccine phase 3 trials.

D. Macià, M. Pons-Salort, G. Moncunill et al. · 2025

7 citations

The interaction of waning vaccine protection with changes in transmission intensity over time is shown and a series of counterfactual predictions are provided, illustrating how vaccine efficacy might differ, by between 10% and 20% in some cases, under alternative vaccination dates.

Unveiling mismatch of RTS S AS01 and R21 Matrix M malaria vaccines haplotype among Ethiopian Plasmodium falciparum clinical isolates

Aynalem Mandefro, Alebachew Kebede, Mitchel Katsvanga et al. · 2025

1 citations

A high Pfcsp genetic diversity is revealed highlighting the need for further studies to inform allele selection for universal or region-specific vaccine development as this may influence vaccine efficacy.

Comparison of major, minor and junctional circumsporozoite protein epitopes for malaria vaccine design

E. Ryan, Dallas R. Brown, William Harrison et al. · 2025

1 citations

Head-to-head comparisons of selected TMV vaccines and RTS,S revealed equivalent in vivo liver burden reduction and TMV-NPNAx20 was selected for clinical-grade antigen manufacture based on its equivalent reduction in parasite burden at lower antibody concentrations.

Protective immunity against malaria by a nanoparticle CIS43-based junctional vaccine alone or in combination with R21

P. Tripathi, Ja-Hyun Koo, Xuejun Chen et al. · 2025

0 citations

Data suggest the nanoparticle-formatted tandem-repeated CIS43-junctional vaccine to be a promising approach to broaden immunity against malaria, either as a standalone intervention or in combination with R21.

Evaluation of a novel malaria anti-sporozoite vaccine candidate, R21 in Matrix-M adjuvant, in the UK and Burkina Faso: two phase 1, first-in-human trials.

N. Venkatraman, A. Tiono, Georgina S. Bowyer et al. · 2024

7 citations

Assessment of the safety and immunogenicity of the malaria vaccine candidate, R21, administered with or without adjuvant Matrix-M in adults naïve to malaria infection and in healthy adults from malaria endemic areas found an acceptable safety profile.