Submitted Abstract
The overall objective of the MIMVaC-Africa is to accelerate the development of highly effective malaria vaccines that meet the goals set by the WHO Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap and to identify the candidate for advanced clinical development.To achieve that, the MIMVaC-Africa consortium is basing its strategy on four main pillars:1. Assembling knowledgeable partners including malariologists, vaccines developers, trialists Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe including America and Asia. This project will strengthen cross fertilization of EDCTP’s Networks of Excellence from East, South, Central and West Africa.2. Leveraging the recently developed African controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) challenge model capacity during the first two years of the project to rapidly test and compare targeted malaria vaccine candidates and down-select the most promising one.3. Conduct phase 1/2 CHMI trials followed by a phase 2b multicenter trials in the African children under natural exposure to P. falciparum infection in very experienced and GCP compliant research institutions in Africa to generate evidence that will support smooth progress to large phase 3 trials.4. Engage a dialogue with regulatory authorities, Ministries of Health, and important local and international stakeholders about setting a mechanism that would facilitate continuous engagement to report the progress of the project, and discuss requirements for expedited deployment of a successful candidate.The MIMVaC-Africa programme is ambitious but highly achievable within the timeframe of EDCTP funding. Beyond delivering promising candidate(s) suitable for testing in phase 3, it is also expected to:1. Strengthen translational vaccine development platform capabilities in African sites.2. Reinforce the clinical trial infrastructure.3. Develop immune assays capacity.in AfricaOverall this highly stimulating programme fits extremely well with the priorities of the EDCTP call.