LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - The world's second vaccine

against malaria was launched on Monday as Ivory Coast began a

routine vaccine programme using shots developed by the

University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India.

The introduction of the World Health Organization

(WHO)-approved R21 vaccine comes six months after the first

malaria vaccine, called RTS,S and developed by British drugmaker

GSK, began being administered in a routine programme in

Cameroon.

Some 15 African countries plan to introduce one of the two

malaria vaccines this year with support from the Gavi global

vaccine alliance.

Ivory Coast has received a total of 656,600 doses of the

Oxford and Serum shot, which will initially vaccinate 250,000

children aged between 0 and 23 months across the West African

country. The vaccine has also been approved by Ghana, Nigeria,

Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.

The rollout of a second vaccine is the latest milestone in

the global fight against malaria and should help address a

problem that emerged well before either of the two shots was

launched: demand for them is likely to far outstrip supply for

several years.

Experts say having safe and effective malaria vaccines is

important to meet demand. The shot is meant to work alongside

existing tools - such as bed nets - to combat malaria, which in

Africa kills nearly half a million children under the age of

five each year.

The Serum Institute of India, which manufactures the

vaccine, has produced 25 million doses for the initial rollout

of the shot and "is committed to scaling up to 100 million doses

annually", the company said on Monday about the launch in Ivory

Coast.

Serum said it is offering the vaccine for less than $4 per

dose, in keeping with its aim to deliver low-cost vaccines at

scale.

Results from a large trial in February showed the vaccine

prevented around three-quarters of symptomatic malaria cases in

young children the first year after they got the shots.

Experts told Reuters at that time that comparing the two

malaria vaccines head-to-head was difficult because of the many

variables involved in the trials, but overall their performance

was similar - a conclusion endorsed by WHO.