New Discovery Paves Way for Next Generation Malaria Vaccine
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases it can cause yellow skin, seizures, coma, or death.
Symptoms usually begin ten to fifteen days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. If not properly treated, people may have recurrences of the disease months later. In those who have recently survived an infection, reinfection usually causes milder symptoms. This partial resistance disappears over months to years if the person has no continuing exposure to malaria.
Malaria infection develops via two phases: one that involves the liver (exoerythrocytic phase), and one that involves red blood cells, or erythrocytes (erythrocytic phase). When an infected mosquito pierces a person's skin to take a blood meal, sporozoites in the mosquito's saliva enter the bloodstream and migrate to the liver where they infect hepatocytes, multiplying asexually and asymptomatically for a period of 8–30 days.
After a potential dormant period in the liver, these organisms differentiate to yield thousands of merozoites, which, following rupture of their host cells, escape into the blood and infect red blood cells to begin the erythrocytic stage of the life cycle. The parasite escapes from the liver undetected by wrapping itself in the cell membrane of the infected host liver cell.
- Increasing Support for Vaccine Development
In addition to the funds from traditional research-funding institutions, the Gates Foundation has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D of new vaccines against the leading killers of children and adults everywhere. GAVI has established public-private partnerships to accelerate late-stage development and introduction of priority vaccines against diseases such as rotavirus and pneumococcus.
These partnerships are designed to work with governments, donors, and industry to streamline demand, supply, and financing decisions. They coordinate and fund the efforts of partners supporting national decision makers whether to introduce these new products, ensuring a reliable and sustainable supply of affordable vaccine to developing countries, and reducing risks and creating incentives for private investment to ensure access to the product.
Global Vaccine Fund commits $150 Million in vaccines and funding over five years to 13 developing countries. Countries will receive financial and technical assistance in order to strengthen basic immunization systems and to introduce newer, under-used vaccines such as hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). Some countries will receive support in both areas. Thus the growing support for vaccine development is likely to favor market growth.
- Technology Insights
The vaccines market by technology is segmented into Recombinant vaccines, Conjugate Vaccines, Live Attenuated Vaccines, Inactivated Vaccines, and Toxoid Vaccines. In 2018, the conjugate vaccines segment held a largest market share of 65.1% of the vaccines market, By Technology. This segment is also expected to dominate the market in 2027 as they are the most effective forms of immunization, used to prevent diseases in both infants and adults. Moreover, the similar segment is anticipated to also witness the fastest growth rate of 6.7% during the forecast period, 2019 to 2027 owing to the increasing demand for drugs to treat the disease.