Paper short abstract:

This paper presents a biography of a vaccine for malaria, tracing its history and the networks of human and non-human actors linked together to develop, test and evaluate it. Exploration of this vaccine and its supporting networks reveals the ways in which it impacts larger global health networks.

Paper long abstract:

Medicines are not simply scientific and technical creations that prevent or cure illness; they have the power to shape the world, creating economic, political and social relationships and networks that support their development and dispersal. This can be understood through a biographical approach to medicines and the application of Actor Network Theory, which proposes that social phenomena come about due to networks involving both human and non-human actors. Taking a biographical approach, this paper traces the 30 year history of a vaccine for malaria, named 'RTS,S'. It explores the networks that have been created to support its invention, testing, and use and the actors enrolled in those networks. Developed and manufactured by the pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Belgium, RTS,S was trialed in seven African countries from 2009 to 2014 with funding from the Gates Foundation and other public and private organizations. Drawing on ethnographic research at GSK in Belgium and a malaria vaccine clinical trial in Tanzania, this paper explores the vaccine from its birth in laboratories, to its clinical trials, to its evaluation for use across Africa. It traces its movements in diverse contexts, including the laboratory, clinical and business spheres, uncovering its various meanings and uses, and provides an examination of the networks through which the vaccine is financed, regulated, and researched. Through an examination of the multi-faceted social and political life of the malaria vaccine, it is revealed how the vaccine shapes larger global health networks aimed at economic development and malaria control.