I get what you mean: Malaria vaccines never got a sudden rush of Manhattan-Project-esque funding like COVID-19 vaccines. But according to the study, funding for this research was provided by "The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), The Wellcome Trust and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre".

The EDCTP is funded by the European Union as well as the individual member countries. The Wellcome Trust and Oxford are both British.

Perhaps wealthy nations could/should be doing more, but it seems like wealthy countries are responsible for this breakthrough.

Malaria eradication did get a massive Manhattan Project-esq push. It just failed.

As an infectious disease epidemiologist, after HIV, malaria is probably the next most closely studied and well-funded infectious disease we look into. It's also been a WHO priority for basically the entire existence of the WHO.

Malaria used to happen in USA and Europe, it was eradicated there less than hundred years ago.