PROJECT

STRATEGY AND IMPACT

Placental malaria (PM) is a severe disease that affects a particularly vulnerable demographic group, pregnant women. The burden of disease is high, threatening more than 100 million women every year, causing the death of an estimated 50,000 pregnant women and up to 200,000 infants. An effective vaccine would be an attractive tool to control PM on its own, or to complement the existing yet imperfect tools.

The overall project objective is to advance the clinical development of two promising PM vaccine candidates, PRIMVAC and PAMVAC, identifying the best vaccination strategy to improve and broaden the vaccine-induced immune response for future phase 2/3 clinical trials. The clinical trial activities are embedded in human and infrastructure capacity building efforts at the sub-Saharan African partner institutions.

Digital tools will be developed, and their feasibility/acceptability evaluated for monitoring pregnancy outcomes in preparation of future efficacy trials. Cost-effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of PM vaccine implementation will be assessed.

African-women-with-child_photo kindly provided by Roll Back Malaria_edited_edited.jpg

IMPACT

The major outcomes expected are:

The most promising PM vaccine regimen is identified and ready for testing in large scale efficacy trials
Feasibility and acceptability of pregnancy mobile app for tracking pregnancy outcomes is demonstrated
Clinical trial, immunology and health care capacities are strengthened in Sub-Saharan Africa
Stakeholders informed about cost effectiveness of PM vaccines compared to available preventive treatments and acceptability of PM vaccines assessed

AT A GLANCE

TARGET DISEASE

Placental malaria

TIMELINE

01 June 2022 – 31 May 2027

COORDINATOR

European Vaccine Initiative

Germany

FUNDER

European Commission

FUNDING

10M Euro

ADVANCE-VAC4PM is a collaborative project funded by the European commission. The project is a joint effort of leading experienced and highly committed scientists from Africa and Europe with proven track records in malaria vaccine research and development.