Mosquitoes, malaria, and UK R&D viral disease vaccine investment

World Malaria Day is an annual global health observance originally established by WHO Member States in 2007 to raise awareness about malaria and mobilise action to prevent, control, and ultimately eliminate the disease.

Observed on 25th April 2026 under the theme "Driven to End Malaria: Now We Can. Now We Must", this year emphasised the urgency and possibility of ending malaria with existing tools, progressive science, and African-led programmes, given that the fight against this disease currently faces a “perfect storm” of challenges, including mosquito resistance to those existing tools, as well as cuts to global health funding. Indeed, with partial resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) starting to emerge in areas of Southeast Asia and Africa, there is a need for new treatment approaches to allow health systems to stay ahead of the Plasmodium parasite.

To this end, Malaria No More UK, working in partnership with Impact Global Health – a not-for-profit research and policy organisation focused on global health R&D across neglected diseases, emerging infectious diseases, and women’s health – called on the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) to sustain investment in malaria R&D to maintain the country’s role as a ‘malaria science superpower’.

To find out more, pharmaphorum spoke with Victoria Fowler, UK campaign director at Malaria No More UK, and Dr Sabastine Wakdok, director of research at Impact Global Health. 

The current malaria R&D landscape

Recent analysis has shown that the UK has consistently been the second-highest country funder of malaria R&D for nearly two decades. Indeed, UK institutions are involved in one in five malaria drugs, vaccines, and vector control products currently in the R&D pipeline – the third highest in the world.

“Despite the huge challenges that the world faces today with resistance, and climate change and global geopolitical pressures, actually what we have is a burgeoning scientific sector on the precipice of uncovering potentially groundbreaking, endgame tools that could eliminate malaria,” stated Fowler. “When we think about the fact that malaria is one of the oldest and deadliest diseases that's lived with Mankind, that's quite a feat to be saying in 2026 that, in the not too distant future, we could really be dealing with endgame scientific innovations.”

In 2024, there were an estimated 282 million malaria cases and 610 000 malaria deaths in 80 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That same year, the WHO African Region was “home to 95% of malaria cases (265 million) and 95% (579,000) of malaria deaths.”

There was hope in November 2025, when Novartis announced a new phase 3 trial showing efficacy for a drug with a new mechanism of action in malaria. The study of GanLum (KLU156) – a combination of novel drug ganaplacide with established antimalarial lumefantrine – showed that it was at least as effective as standard treatment Coartem (artemether and lumefantrine) at achieving malaria cure. Ganaplacide is thought to work in a new way, disrupting internal protein transport systems that are essential for the parasite's survival inside red blood cells. It was discovered after screening 2.3 million molecules at Novartis' San Diego R&D facilities, and is being developed in partnership with the non-profit Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).

And, in February 2026, a study published in The Lancet Global Health found that “strategic investment in antimalarial drug research delivers substantial and sustained health benefits, with every dollar invested yielding a 13-fold return to society,” according to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The study, conducted in collaboration with MMV, Imperial College London, Cambridge Economic Policy Associates, and the UK FCDO, provided the first comprehensive economic evaluation of a product development partnership's return on investment in the fight against malaria.

Then, in July this year, global leaders in malaria research and development, as well as policymakers, funders, and industry partners, gathered in Japan for a symposium on malaria research and development, to explore how to advance new tools to tackle malaria. Japan itself eliminated malaria in the country in 1962.

That event was co-hosted by the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund and MMV with support from the Gates Foundation. MMV reported on its GHIT Fund-supported projects, which include “long-acting malaria prevention tools currently being developed in separate projects with Tanabe Pharma, Eisai and Shionogi, as well as the development of a triple artemisinin-based combination therapy (TACT) to extend efficacy of an existing medicine.”

Closer to home, though, malaria R&D has also created a positive ‘ripple effect’ on the UK’s domestic health system. For example, research into a malaria vaccine helped produce a vaccine for shingles, which is now widely used across high-income countries including the UK and is projected to prevent nearly 32 million cases globally by 2050. AS01 was developed through global health R&D for malaria vaccines and first deployed in the malaria vaccine RTS,S. During this development process, AS01 was recognised not as a single-use solution, but as a highly flexible immune-enhancing platform capable of eliciting strong and durable immune responses. This platform capability enabled AS01 to be repurposed and incorporated into Shingrix, a recombinant vaccine for shingles (herpes zoster) – which only today received approval from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) for a prefilled syringe presentation.

The importance of continued UK R&D funding

Malaria No More UK has reported how “British-backed innovation in the fight against malaria is saving lives, fuelling [the] economy, and futureproofing [the] NHS.” Indeed, they found that, not only could UK investment in malaria R&D “generate over £2 billion in GDP for the UK's economy,” but that “[i]nvesting in neglected disease R&D also has the power to create more than 4,000 British jobs, and unlock over £4 billion in private sector investment.” Nonetheless, it depends on continued UK support for the Global Fund, Gavi, and malaria research.

“The UK is not just funding malaria science, it is actively shaping the global pipeline, especially in vaccines and drugs,” said Impact Global Health’s Dr Wakdok. “In terms of funding, the UK is second only to the US.”

“There are two parts of the story for malaria from the UK's perspective,” noted Malaria No More UK’s Fowler. “There's the investment in multilaterals, such as Gavi and the Global Fund and the important role they play in mass purchasing power and deployment abilities and health systems strengthening within countries – getting these tools and scientific innovations to the people that need them. But there is also the lesser known role that the FCDO plays, which is still of absolute vital importance.”

The UK FCDO’s involvement in science, technology, and innovation investments follows cuts to global health funding in 2025. Last year’s cuts to major bodies who distribute key malaria tools, like the Global Fund and Gavi, will have made some developers more cautious about investing in malaria R&D as budgets shrink for prospective buyers of their products.

What exacerbates this further still is that health systems remain fragile in high burden countries. Indeed, malaria-endemic regions are by and large still developing their infrastructure. However, projections show that getting back on track to the Sustainable Development Goal of cutting malaria by 90% by 2030 could boost the economies of malaria-endemic countries by $142.7 billion, including more than $450 million in trade from the UK to malaria-endemic countries.

More mosquitoes, at home and abroad

Of course, malaria is not the only risk from mosquitoes. Only last week, closer to home, pharmaphorum reported on the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) discovery of invasive Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and their larvae at residential properties in London – a species known to carry viral diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika.

Prior to this, at the end of last year, the UK’s National Preparedness Commission put together a report with Valneva on the need to strengthen preparedness against the threat of mosquito-borne diseases in the nation, noting that “[r]ising temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme weather events – such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves – create favourable conditions for mosquito survival and reproduction.”

And even before then, the UKHSA published Health Effects of Climate Change, a 2023 report warning of the potential future transmission of mosquito-borne diseases in the UK due to the introduction and establishment of disease-carrying mosquitoes including Aedes albopictus.

What this summer brought forcibly home to many Britons was the reality of climate change, record-breaking heat unable to be ignored in a country in which, as of 2022, fewer than 5% of homes contain air-conditioning, according to Time magazine. The mosquito problem is not going away here and it certainly isn’t going away in malaria-endemic countries – without further research and development.

“The malaria parasite is developing resistance to frontline drugs, but mosquitoes themselves are also becoming resistant to various insecticides, which is why it's so important we have next generation bed nets and residual sprays […] in the pipeline,” urged Fowler. “Climate change is having an impact on how the seasonality of transmission is affecting communities: warmer temperatures are changing rainfall patterns, which are making new regions more welcoming to malaria-carrying mosquitoes. So, that makes it sort of more unpredictable as to where the outbreaks are going to be.”

“[But] I'm hopeful that we can continue to be a country that's proud of what we've achieved in its contribution to helping to eliminate malaria,” concluded Fowler. “The UK should continue to be proud and invest in its work across its science institutions, its pharmaceutical and biotech partners, and its vector control and medicine partners to ensure that there is a full set of malaria tools that can help end this disease.”