Gavi, UNICEF ink deal to provide easy access to malaria vaccine
SOCIAL – HEALTH
25 NOVEMBER 2025
- Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have announced a new agreement that it said will make the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccines significantly more accessible and affordable, paving the way for protecting more children.
- The deal, executed by UNICEF, is expected to generate up to $90 million in savings for Gavi and countries, equivalent to more than 30 million additional doses — enabling full vaccination of nearly seven million more children against malaria over the next five years.
- It is financed by Gavi through an advance payment, enabled by the innovative International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) mechanism.
- The lower price of the vaccine — at $2.99 per dose — is anticipated to take effect in approximately one year.
- Gavi facilitates and finances the procurement, logistics, market shaping and integration of malaria vaccines into national immunisation programmes.
- To date, over 40 million doses of malaria vaccines have been delivered through the Gavi malaria vaccination programme and are now part of routine immunisation in 24 African countries that together represent more than 70% of the world’s malaria burden.
- UNICEF is the world’s largest buyer of vaccines, delivering nearly three billion doses every year.
- The WHO has prequalified two malaria vaccines to-date: R21/Matrix-M (co-developed by the University of Oxford and Serum Institute of India, leveraging Novavax’s Matrix-M adjuvant technology) and RTS,S/AS01 (developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), PATH and partners).
