Gavi and UNICEF announced an agreement on October 22, 2026, from Copenhagen, Geneva and New York. UNICEF is implementing the agreement, with financial support from Gavi; it is made possible by an advance payment from the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm). The price reduction is relative to the amount paid on October 22, 2026, and is expected to take effect by early 2027, according to the organizations. Before procurement begins, a new production facility must, among other requirements, be prequalified by the WHO, according to UNICEF.
Demand for malaria vaccines has exceeded initial forecasts since the rollout began in 2024, according to UNICEF. By October 22, 2026, UNICEF had procured and delivered more than 74 million doses. The Gavi-funded program is now part of routine immunization in 25 African countries, which account for more than 70 percent of the global malaria burden. The World Health Organization recommended RTS,S in October 2021 as the first malaria vaccine against malaria in children. The WHO recommended the second vaccine, R21, in October 2023. UNICEF cited an estimated 282 million malaria cases and 610,000 deaths worldwide in 2024. Up to 95 percent of these were in Africa, and around 74 percent of the deaths were among children under five. According to UNICEF, the new price builds on the transfer of vaccine production to a manufacturer in a developing country.
Who is backing the agreement
The International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) says it is bringing forward future donor commitments to fund the advance payment. This can give manufacturers planning certainty at an early stage and, according to IFFIm, encourage investment in production capacity. The vaccine is manufactured by Bharat Biotech, which produces RTS,S/AS01, developed by GSK, under the brand name Mosqivac®. Bharat Biotech Chairman Krishna Ella said countries and global organizations now had an important role in accelerating vaccine rollout so that more children and communities at risk could benefit. In June 2025, GSK and Bharat Biotech had already announced a gradual price reduction for RTS,S to below US$5 by 2028, citing process improvements, increased production capacity, low-cost manufacturing and minimal profit margins.
What the figures do not show
The World Health Organization considers the supply of the two recommended malaria vaccines sufficient to meet demand, but most countries are implementing vaccination below their intended scale because of limited funding, according to the WHO. Gavi is limiting its own support for malaria vaccines to 70 percent of areas with moderate and high transmission, according to a report to the board dated June 17, 2026, after the previous limit was 85 percent. Countries outside this scope of support can finance vaccines themselves and procure them directly from UNICEF, according to Gavi, which the alliance believes affects demand and the expansion of the program. According to the WHO, there is no direct comparative study of RTS,S/AS01 and the cheaper R21/Matrix-M vaccine, and there is currently no evidence that one is more effective than the other.
Savings, vaccine prices and budget impact
Similar financing has been used once before: in 2025, an advance payment through IFFIm for the second prequalified vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, enabled savings of around US$90 million through 2030, according to IFFIm. For the new RTS,S agreement, by contrast, UNICEF expects savings of around US$50 million between 2027 and 2029, less than in the earlier transaction. According to UNICEF, as demand grows, the savings from the new RTS,S agreement could enable up to one million additional children to receive a full four-dose vaccination course or help countries reach more children with other vaccines. According to a Gavi report from June 2026, the price of R21/Matrix-M is expected to fall from US$3.9 to US$2.99 per dose from the end of 2026. The same report cited a price at the time of US$10.7 per dose for RTS,S/AS01. A study on Uganda illustrates how much a vaccine rollout can affect a national budget: annual rollout costs there were estimated at US$29 million, equivalent to 24 percent of Uganda's immunization budget. Over five years, the study's authors put the total budget impact at US$145.5 million; the study was published in March 2026, before the new pricing agreement announced on October 22, 2026.
Supply capacity and malaria deaths among children
First, the new production facility must be prequalified by the WHO to enable increased supply capacity. According to WHO estimates, children under five bear the greatest burden of the disease, with around 438,000 African children dying from malaria in 2024.