GSK, Bharat Biotech to slash the price of first malaria vaccine to less than $5 per dose by 2028

As part of a multi-year collaboration, GSK and India’s Bharat Biotech are redoubling their efforts to bring the world’s first malaria vaccine to more countries in need at affordable prices.

Mosquirix, or RTS.S., was brought to the world stage by GSK and PATH (formerly known as the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) in 2021 as the first malaria vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Bharat Biotech, an established supplier to global vaccine alliance Gavi, quickly signed on to help with antigen manufacturing in a product transfer agreement meant to boost the long-term supply of the shot and deliver on GSK’s commitment to supply up to 15 million doses through 2028.

Since then, Bharat Biotech has pumped more than $200 million into higher-output manufacturing facilities and other enhancements. Along with GSK’s own “significant investments” in production capacity and efficiency, the pair's production progress will now allow for a phased reduction in the price of the vaccine, the companies explained in a June 25 press release

The gradual price cut of more than 50% will commence immediately and reach a price of less than $5 per dose by 2028, according to the release.

"We partnered with Bharat Biotech in 2021 with a common goal: to find a sustainable solution to get ahead of malaria,” GSK’s Chief Global Health Officer Thomas Breuer said in the release. “Today, we announce GSK’s contribution to the long-term price ambition of the world's first malaria vaccine, a key milestone achieved through collaboration with Bharat Biotech and partners from Gavi, PATH and the WHO.”

The commitment is part of a wider pledge to international vaccine alliance Gavi’s upcoming replenishment phase for 2026 through 2030.

Dubbed Gavi 6.0, the alliance’s five-year strategic framework looks to scale up global access to vaccines, strengthen health systems and ensure sustainable immunization programs and vaccine markets through long-term, predictable funding.

Gavi will have introduced Mosquirix to routine immunization programs in 12 endemic countries in Africa by the end of 2025, an achievement that has “only been possible through the critical work that GSK has undertaken with Bharat Biotech,” PATH, the WHO and other global health organizations, according to the GSK release.

The latest agreement between GSK and Bharat Biotech puts Gavi’s goal of protecting at least 50 million more children across Africa from malaria by the end of 2030 “firmly in reach,” Gavi’s CEO Sania Nishtar, Ph.D., noted in the release.

Nearly half of the world’s population is at risk of malaria, according to the WHO. Since 2000, investments in global malaria response have prevented more than 13 million deaths and at least 2 billion cases, but recent funding cuts to foreign aid could put malaria prevention programs in jeopardy. Most recently, the U.S.’s proposed 2026 budget includes a 47% cut to the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which would slash annual funding to $424 million.

“For the first time in decades, the number of kids dying around the world will likely go up this year instead of down because of massive cuts to foreign aid. That is a tragedy,” billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates warned in a statement. Gates' foundation, the Gates Foundation, on Tuesday chipped in $1.6 billion to support Gavi over the next five years ahead of a pledging event co-hosted by the foundation and the European Union that looks to raise at least $9 billion for Gavi. 

Meanwhile, GSK has been working on a next-generation malaria vaccine that would add a new antigen that works at a different life-cycle stage of the malaria parasite. In addition to greater disease protection, the second-generation program could reduce the number of booster doses needed, making it “more accessible and easier to implement in routine immunization programs,” GSK’s second-generation malaria vaccine program lead, Katie Ewer, said in a GSK post in April.