Joint efforts to defeat malaria affecting pregnant women and their babies
25 Avril 2014
Austria
Heidelberg, 25 April 2014
Since 2011 the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI, Germany), the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and the Institut national de transfusion sanguine (INTS) have joined forces to define rational decision criteria for pursuing vaccine development, including the identification of relevant immunological assays for assessing immunogenicity and efficacy of two vaccine candidates in placental malaria.
Placental malaria is caused by P. falciparum infected Erythrocytes (PE) that bind to a placental receptor and sequester in the placenta, where they cause disease and death for the mother and her off-spring. Every year, more than 100 million pregnant women are threatened by placental malaria, which causes the death of 80 000 - 200 000 children.
Currently for malaria in pregnancy the only preventive strategies to improve maternal and fetal outcomes include intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) and insecticide-treated bed nets. However, resistance to drugs used for IPT by the parasite and waning efficacy of the bed nets due to insecticide resistance in the vector represent major threats. This problem has long been neglected, and no vaccine preventing placental malaria is available.
European efforts to reduce the threat imposed by malaria on pregnant women in malaria-endemic areas are moving towards the development of a malaria vaccine to save the lives of mothers and their new-borns, by immunising young women before their first pregnancy in the hope that they will be protected during future pregnancies.
The PAMCPH/PlacMalVac and PRIMALVAC projects, each focussing on a domain of the var2CSA leading antigen, have made significant progress in defining the process development. The production under current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) is expected to start in 2014.
An EVI workshop on placental malaria vaccine clinical development was held on 24 April 2014 at Institut Pasteur in Paris. Worldwide experts in placental malaria made recommendations on the clinical development strategy, based on the preferred product characteristics. Solving these issues will help to successfully move placental malaria vaccine candidates through subsequent development.
Dr. Odile Leroy, Executive Director of EVI said, 'It is a major step forward to have the placental malaria scientific community committed to working together to face the numerous challenges of developing a vaccine to prevent malaria in pregnancy. EVI is proud to see that its catalytic role enables scientific advances to address this sorely neglected medical need.'
The PAMCPH/PlacMalVac and PRIMALVAC partners gratefully acknowledge Irish Aid, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Commission.
Since 2011 the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI, Germany), the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and the Institut national de transfusion sanguine (INTS) have joined forces to define rational decision criteria for pursuing vaccine development, including the identification of relevant immunological assays for assessing immunogenicity and efficacy of two vaccine candidates in placental malaria.
Placental malaria is caused by P. falciparum infected Erythrocytes (PE) that bind to a placental receptor and sequester in the placenta, where they cause disease and death for the mother and her off-spring. Every year, more than 100 million pregnant women are threatened by placental malaria, which causes the death of 80 000 - 200 000 children.
Currently for malaria in pregnancy the only preventive strategies to improve maternal and fetal outcomes include intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) and insecticide-treated bed nets. However, resistance to drugs used for IPT by the parasite and waning efficacy of the bed nets due to insecticide resistance in the vector represent major threats. This problem has long been neglected, and no vaccine preventing placental malaria is available.
European efforts to reduce the threat imposed by malaria on pregnant women in malaria-endemic areas are moving towards the development of a malaria vaccine to save the lives of mothers and their new-borns, by immunising young women before their first pregnancy in the hope that they will be protected during future pregnancies.
The PAMCPH/PlacMalVac and PRIMALVAC projects, each focussing on a domain of the var2CSA leading antigen, have made significant progress in defining the process development. The production under current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) is expected to start in 2014.
An EVI workshop on placental malaria vaccine clinical development was held on 24 April 2014 at Institut Pasteur in Paris. Worldwide experts in placental malaria made recommendations on the clinical development strategy, based on the preferred product characteristics. Solving these issues will help to successfully move placental malaria vaccine candidates through subsequent development.
Dr. Odile Leroy, Executive Director of EVI said, 'It is a major step forward to have the placental malaria scientific community committed to working together to face the numerous challenges of developing a vaccine to prevent malaria in pregnancy. EVI is proud to see that its catalytic role enables scientific advances to address this sorely neglected medical need.'
The PAMCPH/PlacMalVac and PRIMALVAC partners gratefully acknowledge Irish Aid, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Commission.