AdFalciVax: India's shot at stopping malaria on its tracks

India will soon have an advanced vaccine against malaria.

- HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @Bhubaneswar

In a major scientific breakthrough, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has developed an innovative recombinant, chimeric multi-stage malaria vaccine that could transform malaria prevention and control efforts in India and globally.

Named AdFalciVax, the vaccine has been developed to offer both protection against Plasmodium falciparum infection in humans and interruption of community transmission, unlike the existing two vaccines that can partially prevent infection in humans but cannot stop transmission in the community.

The novel vaccine developed by Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar, one of the constituent institutes of ICMR, is now ready for technology transfer to manufacturers or organisations for production, clinical trials and its commercialisation. Preliminary trials on animal models have been highly successful.