IVCC’s stakeholder event in 2013 took place at MIM in Durban, when key individuals and organisations from all over the world gathered to share information and strategies for fighting malaria.

One of IVCC’s key objectives for stakeholder events is to engage with people working in country control programmes. The MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference 2013 in Durban provided a perfect opportunity to make contact and learn from people in the front line of malaria vector control.

The IVCC stand provided a visual summary of key achievements since the launch of IVCC in 2005 and a time frame for delivery of new vector control tools.

There were many visitors to the stand. Most were seeking  information about the progress of IVCC’s collaboration with industry partners to develop the three new active ingredients that will form the basis of a new generation of public health insecticides. A frequent question was, ‘how long before you can deliver?’, indicative of growing concerns about insecticide resistance.

Information about IVCC’s portfolio and details about insecticide resistance were presented to delegates in an IVCC symposium on new tools for the management of insecticide resistance.

Professor Hilary Ranson from LSTM started the IVCC symposium with an overview of insecticide resistance in vector control. Dr Charles Wondji looked at the mechanisms of insecticide resistance and Professor Diabate Abdoulaye considered current strategies and future challenges for malaria vector control in Africa. An industry perspective was provided by Frederic Baur, who outlined the development of new products for insecticide resistance management.

During an evening reception later in the week, the new IVCC CEO, Dr Nick Hamon, outlined the IVCC mission and objectives for the next few years. Tribute was paid to the founders of IVCC and thanks recorded to the committed industry partners and funders who make the work of IVCC possible.
IVCC also took part in a demonstration of the new  Insecticide Quantification Kits (IQKs), which are designed to help spray programmes monitor the effectiveness of indoor residual spraying.

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.

The current control paradigm for malaria is not sustainable in the long term from both a biologic and political perspective, said Dr Alan Magill, addressing the IVCC Stakeholder Day conference in Liverpool.

Dr Magill is a Director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation charged with overseeing the development and implementation of strategies for the foundation’s ultimate goal of the eradication of malaria. He was addressing an audience of vector control and public health experts from across the world, who had gathered together to consider the latest developments in IVCC’s vector control programme. If malaria resurgence is to be avoided, Dr Magill said, eradication is the only strategy that makes sense moving forward.

He outlined five key principles in the malaria eradication strategy. Beginning with the first, precise definitions, he said, ‘the definition of malaria eradication is actually getting parasites out of people.’ The second and third principles involve complete clinical cure including removal of the ‘vast human reservoir of malaria parasites’ in asymptomatic people.

The fourth principle he outlined concerns the fundamental precepts of evolutionary medicine and correct ecologic thinking. ‘Malaria is a very big complex system.  It’s got the biology, the ecology, the political, and the social pieces,’ he said. It is important to understanding it as a system and then ensure that product development and policies are ‘evolutionarily correct’ going forward.

Dr Magill’s final principle was think globally and impact locally,  ‘there is no one size fits all, no one single solution that’s going to magically lead us to eradication,’ he said.

Talking about the role of vector control product development he said that it was important to accelerate the delivery of new vector control products through the current system and get them out to impact just as soon as possible.

‘Let’s finish the job,’ he said in conclusion. ‘We don’t like to get distracted by discussions about elimination and eradication.  This is all about saving lives.  It’s saving lives now in sick people and it’s saving lives for ever going forward because we’re going to avert all those deaths by elimination.  It’s a pure simple equation.  We know that this is biologically and technically feasible and we think the new tools that will be developed in the next few years will make a lot of the things we’re talking about much more operational and feasible.’

Turning to IVCC and the stakeholders in the room he said that the next decade would be an intense period of experimentation—’using current tools and new ways, and really thinking about that long term goal of eradication’.

‘IVCC is a hub in the eradication eco system, and through that hub we can reach out to all the talent in the room.  I would say that if there’s a problem out there in the vector space world, well this is the group of people to solve it.  You own it; if you don’t like it it’s up to you to change it.’

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.