MIMVac: a €21.5 million programme researching malaria vaccines

The MIMVaC-Africa consortium kicked off its ambitious programme of clinical studies for developing effective malaria vaccines during an online meeting on 31 March 2020. The online meeting replaced the initially planned face-face meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 23-24 March 2020.

Coordinator Dr Sodiomon Sirima: “I am delighted that the MIMVaC-Africa programme is starting its practical implementation phase. I am confident that we will be able to deliver one or more malaria vaccine candidates at the end of this programme and therefore pave the way for a larger phase III efficacy trial“.

MIMVaC- Africa is a multilateral initiative to support the clinical development of effective malaria vaccine candidates in Africa. The consortium comprises ten organisations in Africa, Europe and Asia. The consortium is coordinated from the Groupe de Recherche Action en Santé (GRAS), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Partner organisations are in Gabon, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Mozambique, the Netherlands, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom.

EDCTP awarded a grant of more than €11,9 million: the participating institutions will contribute €9.6 million to conduct clinical trials on a portfolio of five malaria vaccine candidates.

The consortium will leverage the recently developed capacity to apply the controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) challenge model during the first two years of the project to rapidly test and compare the vaccine candidates in Europe and Africa. The most promising candidates will be down-selected for the field efficacy trials in Africa.

The MIMVaC-Africa programme will also strengthen translational vaccine development platform capabilities in African research sites, reinforce the clinical trial infrastructure and contribute to the development of immunological assay capacity in the trial sites.

By EDCTP Update March 2020