Health and Foods SOUTH AFRICA

WHO Approves First African-Made Malaria Vaccine for Global Distribution

African Malaria Vaccine

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the pre-qualification of R21/Matrix-M — produced at the Aspen Pharmacare site in Gqeberha — opening the door for UNICEF and Gavi procurement of African-manufactured doses at scale.

Aspen will produce up to 60 million doses annually once at full capacity, with priority supply allocated to 15 high-burden sub-Saharan African countries under a tiered pricing framework.

The achievement fulfils a core ambition of the African Medicines Agency, established to streamline regulatory pathways for locally manufactured health products.

This article was reported by the AfriDevMonitor editorial team. Additional reporting contributed by our correspondents in Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Lagos, Johannesburg, and Cairo.