Clifford Chance supports MedAccess on innovative financing model to ensure roll out of Malaria vaccine for children

Clifford Chance has supported MedAccess (a CDC-owned social finance company), working together with Gavi and GSK, to agree an innovative financing model to ensure that a promising vaccine against Malaria for children can be rolled out beyond current trials if and when the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends wider use of the vaccine.

Malaria kills over 250,000 children every year, and children under five are at the greatest risk of death from Malaria (in 2019, they accounted for 67% of worldwide deaths from Malaria).

The RTS,S/AS01e vaccine – the first malaria vaccine to be proven safe and effective in a large Phase 3 clinical trial – is currently being piloted in routine immunisation programmes in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, through the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP). The WHO is expected to decide later this year whether to recommend the vaccine for broader use based on data emerging from the MVIP.

This follows earlier work with the EIB, Gavi and COVAX on the financing of €400 million to support the participation of low and middle income economies in the COVAX Advance Market Commitment.

The Clifford Chance individuals working on these transactions include Clare Burgess (partner), David Bickerton (partner – retired), Pearl Mahaga (associate) and Tolu Ojo-Williams (associate) on MedAccess and John Thomson (associate) on COVAX. Part of the work has been done on a pro bono basis.