The overall objective of the MIMVaC-Africa consortium is to accelerate the development of highly effective malaria vaccines that meet the goals set by the WHO Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap. For the first time, vaccines developers, malariologists, trialists from Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, USA and Asia, are joining forces to comparatively assess malaria vaccine candidates.

Five malaria vaccine candidates will be evaluated including three Pre-erythrocytic vaccine candidates (R21/Matrix-M, the chemically attenuated whole sporozoite vaccine and the METRAP viral vectors) and two Blood-stage candidates (PfRH5/Matrix-M and the NPC-SE36/CpG).

The project will build on the recently developed African controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) challenge model capacity to rapidly test and compare targeted malaria vaccine candidates and down-select the vaccine candidates to be assessed in a phase 2b multicenter clinical trials in African children under natural exposure to P. falciparum infection.

Beyond delivering promising candidate(s) suitable for testing in phase 3 trial(s), it is also expected to i) Strengthen translational vaccine development platform capabilities in African sites, ii) Reinforce the clinical trial infrastructure and iii) Develop immune assays capacity in Africa.

Interaction of EDCTP’s Networks of Excellence from East, South, Central and West Africa will be strengthened and a dialogue will be engaged with regulatory authorities, Ministries of Health, and important local and international stakeholders to facilitate continuous engagement and discuss requirements for expedited deployment of a successful malaria vaccine candidate.