May 15, 2023
The UltiMalVax consortium is developing a vaccine that will prevent P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria and reduce transmission of both parasites. To that end, project partners and members of its scientific and ethics advisory committee (SEAC) met in Portugal on the 13th and 14th of May 2024 to discuss progress, challenges and upcoming activities after 1 year from the project start.
Malaria predominantly affects the rural poor in low-income countries and mostly young children. There are now two WHO-prequalified malaria vaccines, RTS,S/AS01 vaccine (MosquirixTM) and R21/Matrix-MTM vaccine. The UltiMalVax consortium builds on the recent success of the R21/Matrix-M programme to accelerate malaria eradication. The consortium has an ambitious goal of developing the first vaccine with clinical efficacy in preventing both P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria, and impact on the transmission of both parasites with a single vaccine formulation.
The 2024 consortium meeting in Portugal, gathered 21 consortium and scientific and ethics advisory committee (SEAC) members to discuss project progress. The meeting was greatly enriched by keynote presentations and recommendations from the SEAC members. The UltiMalVax consortium has made great progress in the development of virus-like particle (VLP) and mRNA based immunogens, and new adjuvant components and it´s on track to achieve its objectives in time.
Special thanks to our partners and SEAC members for the very productive discussion.
From left to right: Prof. Anne Willis (scientific advisor), Prof Robert Sauerwein (Scientific advisor), Prof Steve Pascolo (Scientific advisor), Dr. Surender Vashist (NeoVac), Dr. Ahmed Salman (University of Oxford), Prof. Arnauld Didierlaurent (Scientific advisor), Prof Sumi Biswas (University of Oxford/SpyBiotech), Dr. Cesar Lopez-Camacho (University of Oxford), Dr. Bárbara Cunha (GenIbet), Mr Francis Crawley (Ethics advisor), Prof Adrian Hill (University of Oxford), Dr. Jenny Reimer (Novavax AB), Dr. Irene Nkumama (European vaccine Initiative), Dr. Geraldine Frank (Vaccine formulation Institute), Dr. Sophie Barnett (University of Oxford), Dr. Raquel Fortunato (GenIbet), Prof. Chetan Chitnis (Scientific advisor), Dr. Cecilia Carnrot (Novavax AB), Dr. Roland Ventura (Vaccine formulation Institute/Global malaria vaccines)
The project is supported by funding from the European Commission, the UK (UKRI) and Swiss (SERI) governments.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101080928.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
SERI grant number is REF-1131-52304 / SERI No. 23.00184.
UKRI - Project numbers 10079577, 10079247 & 10115196
Contact:
Dr. Irene Nkumama
European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) – Malaria Programme manager
Email: irene.nkumama@euvaccine.eu
UltiMalVax partners:
PROJECT COORDINATOR
PROJECT PARTNERS:
Global Malaria vaccines GMBH
GenIbet – Biopharmaceuticals SA
Novavax AB
Vaccine Formulation Institute (CH) Ltd
Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.
The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford
SpyBiotech Ltd
NeoVac Ltd
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