The growing threat of insecticide resistance in mosquito vectors of malaria has the potential to undermine the significant gains that have been made in the fight against the disease since the turn of the century. Given the limited range of insecticide classes available for malaria vector control the urgency to complement the current products with different classes of chemistry, as well as novel interventions, is well-recognised. However, for these innovations to have long term impact, the vector control community and ZERO by 40 partners recognise that their use must be carefully managed through integrated vector management (IVM) and insecticide resistance management (IRM) strategies, tailored to local needs and available resources.

Read the full ZERO by 40 Insecticide Resistance Statement on ZEROby40.com >

The World Malaria Report, published annually, provides a comprehensive update on global and regional malaria data and trends. The report tracks investments in malaria programmes and research as well as progress across all intervention areas: prevention, diagnosis, treatment and surveillance. It also includes dedicated chapters on malaria elimination and on key threats in the fight against malaria. The report is based on information received from national malaria control programmes and other partners in endemic countries.

This year WHO is publishing a special edition of the World Malaria Report that highlights a period of unprecedented success in global malaria control. Beginning in the 1990s, the world laid the foundation for a renewed malaria response that contributed to 1.5 billion cases and 7.6 million deaths averted over the past two decades. Despite this remarkable progress, the global gains in combatting malaria have levelled off in recent years, and many high burden countries have been losing ground. In 2017, WHO warned that the fight against malaria had reached a crossroads. The “High Burden to High Impact” response, launched in 2018, aims to reignite progress.

Find out more in this years World Malaria Report.

IVCC has developed its new ‘Ambassador Pack’ which is now available digitally or in hard copy version.  The Pack contains 14 loose leaf pages which cover the broad spectrum of IVCC’s work, including Product Development, Key Highlights and Market Access workstreams.  The pack also contains an updated version of the IVCC strategy which was completed earlier this year.

View the online version of the Ambassador Pack here.

A year ago, the CEO’s of five major R&D crop protection companies flew to the World Economic Forum in Davos for a short but very significant meeting with Bill Gates and IVCC.  Why? Malaria deaths had declined globally from 839,000 in 2000 to an estimated 446,000 in 2016, with much of this decline attributed to long lasting insecticide treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying. However, in 2017, the 10 highest burden African countries saw an estimated 3.5 million more malaria cases in 2017 compared with the previous year.  The annual decline in the malaria burden had stalled. Much of this plateauing was attributed to insufficient levels of access to, and uptake of, lifesaving malaria tools and interventions.

What really could a handful of agrochemical companies do to slow the decline that they were not already doing?

Innovation, product development and market access in vector control has historically come from the agrochemical industry, using repurposed insecticides from agriculture.  Today, there are few R&D-based companies who have the expertise to develop new public health insecticides to manage the resistance to current chemistries commonly used in vector control. So, what are the options? We can regress: rely only on existing but gradually failing vector control tools, we can continue to maintain the gains with novel active ingredients and repurposed chemistry, or we can push for elimination of malaria with disruptive novel tools with proven public health value.

The challenge is significant. There are a limited number of insecticide classes (modes of action) in agriculture and the physical and chemical properties of insecticides needed in agriculture are often different to those needed in vector control.  To make the challenge even harder, vector control product development is not an attractive investment option. Vector control is a small business compared to agriculture, driven by a small number of passionate people who care about their impact.

Recognizing that a transformational approach was needed, the few agrochemical companies with R&D capabilities to develop novel insecticide-based tools were asked to ‘Stay the course’ on new product development in vector control and to share know-how if it could be demonstrated doing so would help save additional lives. This unusual partnership of competitors, called ‘ZERO by 40’, will work together to a select number of potentially game-changing interventions.

The mission is aspirational but technically achievable.

So, what might be achieved in this type of collaboration? Mathematical modelling demonstrates that if successful, 17 million lives could be saved between now and 2040 and 840 million malaria cases averted in smallholder farming communities. This could accelerate agricultural productivity and at the same time free up an additional 3.2 billion work days and 1.5 billion school days and reduce the number of care-giving days provided mostly by women by 1.1 billion. Ultimately, eradicating malaria by 2040 will save lives and reduce poverty across malaria endemic sub-Saharan Africa.  Through ZERO by 40, major agrochemical companies have the opportunity to demonstrate that they can be ‘best in the world’ and ‘best for the world’ at the same time.