Global Development  recently published an overview of activities and impacts of product development partnerships (PDPs), commissioned by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO, formerly DFID). The study entitled ‘Accelerating global health R&D: the role of product development partnerships’ assesses development of new medicines and technologies for 35 poverty-related and neglected diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The findings and recommendations will help shape future investments and activities in this field for the UK government and other major government donors and philanthropies.

PDPs, including IVCC, work as virtual orchestras by acting as R&D systems facilitators, aggregating funding and technical expertise from public, private, academic and philanthropic sectors to develop vaccines, drugs and other technologies for diseases of poverty. They were formed 20 years ago to address the so-called 10/90 gap which strikingly still persists today. This gap shows that only 10% of worldwide resources devoted to health research are put towards health in developing countries, where over 90% of all preventable deaths exist, according to the findings by the Forum on Health Research for Development in 1990.  

“The Global Development report ‘Accelerating global health R&D: the role of product development partnerships’ was just published and is one of several independent PDP impact reports in the past year by different organisations, including Australia Aid and PDP Funders Group. These reports are timely as we engage in a debate about the future of PDP funding post the Covid-19 pandemic. All reports confirm that the PDP model has been one of the most successful approaches to address the need for products to tackle diseases in resource poor countries. PDPs are highly cost effective and their pipelines are robust, but that they need sustained and flexible funding to increase their impact on global health and development. The latest report confirms that the ten PDPs assessed within the context of this study have collectively brought 85 new products to market, including 3 vaccines, 27 therapeutics, 50 diagnostics or health technologies, and 5 vector control tools. PDPs are seen as ‘virtual R&D conductors’ that ‘successfully cultivate and enhance networks of partners in industry, academia, research institutes, governments and philanthropies’. PDP’s such as IVCC will continue to play a critical role in driving public/private partnerships to ensure global health security.”

Nick Hamon, CEO, IVCC

Read the full report here > 

According to the World Health Organization, every year there are more than 200 million new cases of malaria, with children under 5 the most vulnerable group affected by the disease. Avient is working together with IVCC, a not-for-profit Product Development Partnership (PDP) based in the UK, to step up the global fight to eradicate malaria and tackle insecticide resistance. Avient and IVCC are creating a new masterbatch production laboratory in Guangzhou, China to support research and development of novel, active insecticide ingredients for long-lasting nets.

The pioneering new facility is expected to be fully operational this summer, and open to current and future innovation projects. It will provide a medium-scale platform for testing and developing masterbatch formulations with insecticides to speed up the process of bringing LLINs to the market. Developing these formulations is imperative to eliminating malaria, as insecticide resistance is making the most widely used formulations, such as pyrethroids, increasingly ineffective. The new facility will also support scale up for those formulations that prove promising.

With extensive global expertise in groundbreaking material solutions to support malaria control, Avient has the capabilities to optimize masterbatch formulations for LLINs to deliver ideal insecticide performance. This includes optimum bio-efficiency and controlled migration of the insecticide to the fiber surface — just enough to kill any mosquito on contact.

Established in 2005 through a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant, IVCC works with industry, funding partners and researchers to develop new public health insecticides for use in LLINs, indoor residual spraying (IRS), and other vector control tools. Its mission is to facilitate innovative approaches to preventing vector-borne diseases globally and to tackle insecticide resistance.

Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC, comments: “Partnering with Avient is an important step in our product portfolio development work. Improving our capabilities to develop and deliver new tools to help address the growing threat of insecticide resistance is critical if we are to achieve our mission of delivering a toolbox of effective interventions to eradicate malaria. We are extremely grateful to all our funding partners who have helped us achieve this important milestone.” 

Avient, a leading sustainable solutions provider for synthetic fiber applications, enables enhanced fiber performance and coloration for a more agile and environmentally friendly textile industry.

“Avient’s collaboration with IVCC will enable LLINs manufacturers to transform their visions into groundbreaking products that improve quality of life in a meaningful way,” said Michael Adam, global technology director at Avient. “Working towards a solution that saves lives and improves public health aligns with Avient’s sustainability goals and commitment to our communities, both local and global.”

About IVCC
IVCC is a not-for-profit Product Development Partnership (PDP) working in vector control. It was established in 2005, through a $50 million grant to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and is a registered charity in the UK. IVCC works with stakeholders to facilitate the development of novel and improved public health insecticides and formulations to combat the rapidly growing problem of insecticide resistance. IVCC brings together partners from industry, the public sector and academia to create new solutions to prevent disease transmission. IVCC is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UKaid, USAID, Unitaid, The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), The Global Fund and Australia Aid.

About Avient
Avient Corporation (NYSE: AVNT), with 2020 pro forma revenues of $3.8 billion, provides specialized and sustainable material solutions that transform customer challenges into opportunities, bringing new products to life for a better world. Examples include:

•    Barrier technologies that preserve the shelf-life and quality of food, beverages, medicine and other perishable goods through high-performance materials that require less plastic
•    Light-weighting solutions that replace heavier traditional materials like metal, glass and wood, which can improve fuel efficiency in all modes of transportation
•    Breakthrough technologies that minimize wastewater and improve the recyclability of materials and packaging across a spectrum of end uses

Avient employs approximately 8,400 associates and is certified ACC Responsible Care®, a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste and certified Great Place to Work®.  For more information, visit www.avient.com.

The introduction of new vector control technologies is critical to supporting insecticide resistance management (IRM) and progressing towards the elimination of malaria.  However, these new tools including 3^rd generation insecticides for indoor residual spraying (IRS) and dual-active ingredient mosquito nets are more expensive than existing tools and will be difficult to introduce without reducing coverage as malaria budgets have plateaued and are under further pressure due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this in mind IVCC is working on a range of market shaping interventions to increase affordability and expand coverage, including a “New Routes to Market” initiative.  IVCC is working with a handful of High Burden High Impact (HBHI) countries including DRC, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda to explore the potential of expanding coverage beyond the constraints of current donor funding through public private partnerships based on successful work done with mining companies, mission hospitals and NGOs under the Next Generation IRS project (NgenIRS). Although these new distribution networks will be initially set up to expand IRS coverage, they will ultimately be available for the distribution of other vector control tools based on the specific needs of partner countries.

Although in the early stages, countries have expressed great interest and have begun the process, with IVCC’s support, to identify and engage private sector funding and implementation partners.  To this end a private sector roundtable was organised by the Ghanaian National Malaria Program as part of the Zero Malaria Starts with Me campaign. The roundtable brought together over 80 private companies to discuss the pressing need for their involvement in the fight against malaria. In Nigeria a similar roundtable hosted by GBCHealth’s Corporate Alliance on Malaria in Africa and the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) brought together over 155 participants including speakers from government, industry, academia and civil society to deliberate on ways to maximise impact on malaria vector control interventions in Nigeria. Other private sector roundtables will be planned in other partner countries in the coming months with the hope of identifying partners that can expand IRS coverage within the next year.

The IVCC Annual Report 2019-2020 has been published. The report showcases IVCC’s work to facilitate innovative approaches to preventing vector-borne diseases and tackle the growing threat of insecticide resistance. With activities across the globe and spanning research and development and market access, we are accelerating the process from innovation to impact. The report is a reminder of the importance of collaborative working and the progress laid out in it is testament, too, to the commitment of our partners from industry, academia, the public sector and advocacy. We are grateful for the support of all of our funders, who make life-saving vector control possible.

“ IVCC is showing its resilience, nimbleness and adaptability to keep a constant focus on its goals and how its people will work together to overcome and rise to this unprecedented challenge of our time.”

The Right Honourable Sir Stephen O’Brien KBE
Chair, Board of Trustees, IVCC

For more information or to request a physical copy please provide your full name and postal address to Chris Larkin on christopher.larkin@ivcc.com.

In a ground-breaking new short film, produced by RSA Films Amsterdam, for the campaign Malaria Must Die, So Millions Can Live, David Beckham appears as never been seen before – as an older man in his 70’s – sending a message of hope and optimism from a time in the future when we have eradicated one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases – malaria.

Against the backdrop of the on-going global disruption due to the far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the film aims to reignite the belief that humankind is capable of uniting to defeat diseases, and in doing so we can create a safer, healthier, stronger world for us all, and for future generations.

Developed by Ridley Scott Creative Group, Amsterdam, and Directed by John Filipe, the film opens with an older Beckham delivering an inspiring speech to a large, expectant crowd. As he continues to speak, a visual transformation takes place, and the older man changes back into David Beckham today, speaking as a father and directly to everyone watching, about how a future free of malaria in our lifetimes is entirely possible – but only if we keep up the fight.

David Beckham is a founding member of Malaria No More UK Leadership Council and a committed champion in the fight against malaria with over a decade of support for Malaria No More UK. In his long-term role as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador he has seen the impact of malaria on people’s lives in countries such as Sierra Leone.

David Beckham said: “The fight against malaria is a cause close to my heart because the disease remains a huge killer of children and we have the opportunity to change that in our lifetime. I’ve worked with Malaria No More UK since 2009, supporting campaigns and helping shine a light on the challenge. Their campaigns always use great creativity and innovation to attract attention to the issue and I’m delighted also to have met some of the inspiring people who are working so hard to end this disease.”

To accompany the main film there is a behind-the-scenes montage film which features leading scientists, doctors, researchers, activists, and champions from key organisations who are all playing a critical part in helping to end malaria in a generation.

Ingrid Etoke, IVCC said: Growing up in Cameroon in West Africa, I always had the shadow of malaria hanging over me. I suffered from malaria many times and I lost my cousins to the disease. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I believe that in the not-too-distant future, we will beat this disease and young children dying from malaria will become an old and distant memory. This will mean more funds are freed up to invest in education, in infrastructure, in the economy, in healthcare in defeating other diseases and in doing so creating a world that is better prepared to take on future pandemics.”

Malaria has plagued humanity throughout history and ending it has, at times, felt like a distant dream. Progress to end the disease has stalled over recent years. Countries and leaders need to maintain funding, commit to greater access to existing tools and invest in new transformative tools to ensure that ending malaria is a high priority.

This global coalition campaign asks everyone to share the film far and wide on social media, and in doing so, demand that their leaders remain committed to delivering a safer, malaria-free world that we now know is possible.

Experts convened by the World Health Organisation (WHO) agree that malaria eradication is likely to save millions of lives and billions of dollars. In 2019 The Lancet Commission on malaria eradication – made up of leading scientists from around the world – found that if we focus efforts on strengthening leadership, increasing investment, prioritising research and innovation, including the development of new tools, and implementing smart, data driven programmes, ending malaria is possible within a generation. Decisions made now by global political leaders – backed by strong public support – will determine this trajectory.

Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, said: “Two decades of global commitment and action have shown the world that the global malaria community knows what it takes to drive unprecedented progress in the malaria fight, cutting deaths by more than 60 per cent and saving more than 7 million lives since 2000. But the world we live in has vastly changed since then, and the far-reaching impact of COVID-19 on malaria responses may not be known for some time.  

“The emergence of COVID-19 has shown the world how critical our health systems are. It is crucial that 2021 sees the world getting back on track towards achieving existing targets to reduce malaria as we come through the pandemic. By investing in ending malaria, we will not only save lives that would otherwise be lost to this deadly disease; we will also protect current health systems

 from the double burden of malaria and other diseases like COVID-19. Increased investment in malaria also helps to build the foundations of stronger health systems going forward which will protect communities from future health crises, giving children everywhere a better start in life and building a more secure world for all.”

Indeed, this year’s WHO World Malaria Report, shows that now is not the time to step away, with over 400,000 malaria deaths reported in 2019, predominantly among children under five across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The report also reveals that COVID-19 poses a threat to malaria progress, but that existing investment and infrastructure to date – combined with a remarkable collective effort – has enabled countries to fight back. Most malaria prevention campaigns moved forward in 2020 without major delays – millions of mosquito nets will have been delivered by end of year, hundreds of thousands of houses have been sprayed with insecticide, and millions of children have been reached with preventative treatment.

However, even with the remarkable actions taken by countries, malaria cases and deaths may rise since history has shown that malaria will return with a vengeance when health systems are disrupted. The World Malaria Report shows that interruptions in diagnosis and treatment have ranged from between 5% to 50%, and the full impact of COVID-19 on malaria responses may not be known for some time.