The IVCC Board of Trustees has appointed a new CEO to succeed Professor Janet Hemingway. Dr Nick Hamon comes to IVCC with over 25 years’ experience in product development in the crop protection and environmental science industries. Most recently he was Head of Sustainability at Bayer CropScience, North America based at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Before that he worked for Bayer as Vice President of Product Development and Sustainable Development and as Director of Development and Technical Services, which followed senior positions at Aventis and Rhone-Poulenc. Nick Hamon has a PhD in Insect Ecology from Rothamstead / University of Hertfordshire and a BSc in Applied Zoology from the University of Reading. He is an adjunct Professor of Entomology at North Carolina State University.

‘I am proud and excited to join IVCC at a time when it has made considerable progress on delivering the mission, vision and strategy that was set in 2005,’ Nick said. ‘As the first group of IVCC sponsored products are used at scale in Africa to prevent child mortality, I look forward to leading IVCC’s efforts to develop the next generation of public health insecticides that are so essential to fighting insect-borne disease, saving lives and lifting disease endemic countries out of poverty.’

Nick Hamon will take up his post in August 2013. Janet Hemingway, who has led IVCC since its formation in 2005, will continue to work with Nick in a support role. Janet said, ‘I am delighted with the appointment of Nick as CEO of IVCC. The massive scale up of insecticide-based control operations has saved millions of lives over the last decade, and Nick has the enthusiasm, qualifications and industrial experience to ensure that new products are brought to market promptly, consolidating recent gains and underpinning international malaria eradication efforts.’

Chairman of the IVCC Board of Trustees, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart said, ‘The Board is very pleased to make this appointment and wishes Nick Hamon and the team at IVCC every success as it moves forward with its mission to develop the vector control products that make such a major difference to the lives of millions of people who are affected by insect-borne disease. Janet Hemingway has made a seminal contribution to the formation of IVCC and to its achievement so far. We look forward to a smooth transition to a new phase of IVCC’s work.’

A list published by the Science Council last week reveals two of the UK’s leading practising scientists are working with IVCC. Since the company was formed in 2005, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart has been Chairman of its Board of Trustees, and Dr John Pickett Chairman of the Public Health Expert Scientific Advisory Committee.

Dr Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC, said that this was a significant recognition of the high level of scientific commitment to the work of IVCC worldwide. ‘We are truly honoured  to have some of the best scientists in the world cooperating with us. Some of them work with us directly like Sir Mark Moody-Stuart and Dr John Pickett, and others work within our partner organisations, and on our scientific advisory committees. Having 2% of UK top scientists on this list working with IVCC is a pretty good record!’

To identify its list of 100 top scientists, the Science Council organised a competition around different ‘types’ of scientist roles to get a broad picture of the many different ways people work with science across UK society.

Chairman of the judging panel, Science Council President Sir Tom Blundell said: “The list shows that not all scientists wear white coats and that scientists are not only found in universities and research labs: they are literally everywhere in a wide variety of careers and occupations.”

After seeing the list David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science said: “This list helpfully challenges the perception that there is only one kind of scientist and highlights the different types of skills and challenges a career in science involves.”

Since it was formed in 2005 with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,  IVCC has worked with some of the world’s leading agrochemical companies to identify new active ingredients that will form the basis of totally new insecticide solutions for malaria prevention, and ultimately help to bring about the eradication of the disease. IVCC’s Expert Scientific Advisory Committees have been responsible for drawing up stringent specifications for developing effective new tools in the fight against insect-borne disease, and for supporting partner organisations through the research and development process.

Companies partnering with IVCC have recently introduced two new insecticide formulations that prolong the effective life of current interventions and are proving to be valuable additional tools for malaria prevention.

Royal Society Pfizer Award for IVCC Partner 4th November 2013

A long-time collaborator of IVCC and LSTM has been awarded this year’s Royal Society Pfizer Award for his malaria research. Dr Abdoulaye Diabate, who is investigating the mating systems of Anopheles gambiae, will receive £60,000 towards a study which aims to cut the mosquito’s high reproductive rate and thereby control the spread of malaria.

Dr Diabate, who is from Burkina Faso, was nominated for the award by LSTM’s Head of Vector Biology, Professor Hilary Ranson. Professor Ranson, who will be present at the award ceremony, said: “Dr Diabate is an exceptionally talented and creative vector biologist who is a thoroughly deserving recipient of the Royal Society Pfizer Award. His pioneering work on mosquito mating behaviour is opening up exciting new possibilities for controlling malaria and I am delighted that he now has the opportunity to pilot some of these ideas via the Pfizer Award.”

“We have collaborated with Dr Diabate on several occasions and the work that he will be able to carry out following this award, will have genuine benefits for all of us involved in trying to control the transmission of malaria.”

The new study, funded by the Royal Society Pfizer Award, will allow Dr Diabate to gather results on male mating behaviour that will be instrumental to the implementation of a full range of new malaria control tools / technologies, for example, engineered mosquitos and sterile insect techniques which rely on a good understanding of male biology.

Commenting on his prize Dr Diabate said: “The Royal Society Pfizer Award is such a wonderful and motivating award for African scientists. Not only does the prize boost high quality research in Africa by empowering African research institutes but in my specific case it will also allow me o quire the skills and knowledge that can help us win the battle against Malaria.”

Dr Diabate is the head of the medical entomology laboratory of the Institut de Recherche en Science de la Santé/Centre Muraz, Burkina Faso.

The Royal Society Pfizer Award is designed to reward scientists, based in Africa, at the outset of their career and to promote science capacity building in the developing world. It is awarded annually. The award, first made in 2006, recognises research scientists making innovative contributions to the biological sciences, including basic medical science.

IVCC’s mission to bring new effective products to market will become even more critical in the next 12 to 15 years according to Stakeholder Day keynote speaker Admiral Tim Ziemer. “We’re not going to be able to achieve malaria control, sustainability and eradication without a mechanism like IVCC to facilitate development of the new vector control tools and products needed to continue the fight,’ he said.

Admiral Ziemer, U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator and leader of the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), was speaking at the beginning of the 2014 IVCC Stakeholder Day, with more than 130 vector control stakeholders gathered from across the world. He began his presentation by acknowledging the work of IVCC as a ‘key product development partner in the malaria fight.  ‘Product development partners like IVCC have resulted in accelerating new technology development and we’re seeing more promising products in the pipeline than we ever have before for.  For an investor that’s an exciting deliverable and expectation’, he said.

‘The potential to provide more value for money in a high risk, high gain and highly technical field by leveraging funding to gain support for continued development of critical commodities to combat a disease of poverty like malaria reflects an effective research investment.  We, the United States Government looks at this, IVCC, as an investment opportunity to leverage some of our research money for the future and we’re very pleased to be a partner.’

Watch Admiral Ziemer’s comments about the partnership between PMI and IVCC

The Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) has helped the CREC/LSHTM Collaborative Research Programme in Benin achieve Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) certification, the second vector control field trial site to attain certification in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The CREC/LSHTM Collaborative Research Programme is a research partnership set up in 2003 between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Centre de Recherche Entomologique de Cotonou (CREC) at the Ministry of Health in Benin.

The partnership has extensive experience in the evaluation of vector control products (mainly long-lasting insecticidal nets and Indoor residual spraying) to WHO standards.  It is part of PAMVERC (The Pan-African Malaria Vector Research Consortium) and its research activities are largely funded by USAID and by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) through IVCC and collaborating agrochemical companies.

Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC said: “Field trials facilities in Africa play an essential role in evaluating novel vector control products being developed by our agrochemical partners. The generation of reliable data through GLP compliant field trials is important, as this is the key to establishing the true performance of the products being tested.”

Since 2000, IVCC, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has been working to strengthen the quality and reliability of data generated by African vector control field trial sites.  This work has included the development of quality management systems including Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), the auditing of facilities for GLP compliance, and GLP training workshops.

An important element of IVCC’s GLP rollout programme has also been its funding of infrastructure improvements including buildings and equipment at its collaborating trial sites. This research capacity building is establishing a network of facilities in Africa that can generate testing data on vector control products of the highest standard.

Dr. Corine Ngufor, Assistant Professor, Disease Control Department, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Facility Manager of CREC/LSHTM Facility said: “GLP accreditation is never an easy process for any facility. CREC/LSHTM is now the first facility in the West African region and the second in Africa to achieve GLP accreditation for vector control product evaluation. We look forward to working with agrochemical companies to deliver high quality data on the efficacy of novel vector control products in line with the WHO pre-qualification requirements.  As a team, we have worked hard over the past 2 years and are very proud of this achievement.  We are also grateful for the support provided by IVCC through this process.”

Graham Small, IVCC’s Trials Quality and Project Support Manager added: “The growing network of GLP certified trials sites across Africa will allow manufacturers of vector control products to generate their own efficacy data for inclusion in their product dossiers submitted to the WHO Prequalification Team product evaluation process. This represents a major step forward for vector control product testing, which will be of major importance in delivering the IVCC mission and in achieving malaria elimination in the future.”

In 2016, the first field trial site to achieve GLP certification was the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo) was in Moshi, Tanzania.   Five further IVCC collaborating trials sites are now planning their GLP studies and will be submitting their applications for OECD GLP certification through SANAS in the coming year.