Mr Holm Keller,
Professor Sahin and Tureci,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon. I’m sorry I can’t join you live today for this very exciting announcement.
As many of you know, malaria is a topic very close to my heart. I started my career as a malaria researcher, and I wrote my PhD thesis on the effect of dams and reservoirs on malaria transmission in Ethiopia.
Eradicating this ancient disease has long been a personal dream of mine.
And we must remember that we have made incredible progress.
Since 2000, malaria deaths have fallen by more than half, and we have succeeded in eliminating malaria from many parts of the world.
WHO has now certified 40 countries as malaria-free; most recently China, which reported 30 million cases a year in the 1940s.
But globally, progress has stalled at an unacceptably high level, with more than 200 million cases and 400 thousand deaths every year.
Most are children and pregnant women in Africa.
And the COVID-19 pandemic has not helped. A WHO survey of 105 countries last year showed that 46% of them reported disruptions in malaria diagnosis and treatment.
The full impact of the pandemic on malaria may not be known for some time.
But it is clear we have a lot of work to do to realise our vision of a malaria-free world.
For starters, we must make much better use of the tools we have today to prevent, detect and treat malaria.
But WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group on malaria eradication has been clear that we will need new tools to realize our vision of a malaria free world, including new vaccines.
For several decades, many major vaccine developers have gradually abandoned their attempts to develop malaria vaccines.
But six years ago, the world’s first malaria vaccine was approved, and two years ago, WHO and our partners began a pilot programme to roll it out in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
More than 700 thousand children have now received the vaccine, and the initial results are very promising.
WHO will be reviewing the data in the coming months, to consider a recommendation for wider use.
At the same time, we know that in future we will need more and better vaccines.
For that reason, I am delighted that BioNTech has committed to developing an mRNA malaria vaccine in Africa.
18 months ago, most people outside the life sciences world had never heard of mRNA. But the very high efficacy of two mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 have shown the world just how powerful this technology could be against many diseases, including malaria.
The pandemic has also demonstrated the urgent need to invest in scaling up local production capacity, especially in Africa. So I am hopeful that this project will be a meaningful and long-lasting contribution to ensuring our continent has a reliable supply of high-quality, locally-produced vaccines.
Of course, the key to malaria eradication is partnership, and we’re all very grateful that the European Union, the European Investment Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have committed to investing in this very exciting project.
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My friends,
mRNA technology is helping us to save lives from COVID-19, a disease that we have only known about for 19 months.
Malaria has been with us for millennia. Eradicating it has been a long-held but unattainable dream.
But new technologies like mRNA are making what was once a fantasy, a possibility.
We still have a very long road to travel. But this is an ambitious and purposeful stride down that road.
WHO remains committed to walking and working with you, our partners, until we reach our destination: a world free of malaria.
Thank you so much.