The World Health Organization Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES) has issued a recommendation for a new polymer-enhanced, long-lasting Indoor Residual Spray for malaria vector control. This deltamethrin based spray was jointly developed by Bayer CropScience and IVCC (the Innovative Vector Control Consortium). It represents a viable cost-effective alternative to DDT for malaria control programs. Market introduction across Sub-Saharan Africa and other malaria endemic areas is expected to occur during 2014 once relevant national regulatory approvals are in place.

Since 2007, Bayer CropScience has been working with its partners in IVCC to develop longer lasting indoor residual spray formulations and new active ingredients to manage insect resistance in malaria vector control. The new polymer-enhanced formulation of deltamethrin offers a residual effectiveness of six months. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized this unique formulation as having a longer residual lifespan than any other pyrethroid insecticide formulation.

“The success of the international community’s goal of eradicating malaria globally depends ultimately on new ideas and innovation,” said Dr. David Nicholson, Head of Research & Development at Bayer CropScience. “Our long-lasting indoor-residual spray is an effective malaria intervention. As a global innovation and market leader in vector control, we will continue to work closely with IVCC to foster the introduction of new vector control tools for public health.”

“We are delighted to have met this important research milestone in our collaboration with Bayer CropScience”, said Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC. “This collaborative achievement illustrates the progress which has been made on the original objectives to deliver effective and affordable vector control interventions. I look forward to further successful outcomes from the IVCC partnership with Bayer CropScience.”

There are many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where the transmission period for malaria can be longer than six months. In these situations, when indoor residual spraying is regarded as an appropriate intervention, a product with longer-lasting efficacy can be very important, reducing the frequency of spraying required and saving considerable costs for malaria control programs.

All insecticide sprays for malaria control are required to be evaluated and recommended by the WHO for effectiveness and safety. Until now the only product formally recognized to have residual effectiveness exceeding six months has been DDT. However, as a Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP), the production and use of DDT is strictly restricted.

Syngenta and IVCC collaboration delivers new long-lasting insecticide formulation, Actellic® 300CS, now recommended by the World Health Organization to fight insecticide resistant mosquitoes.

Syngenta and IVCC are proud to announce that The World Health Organization Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES) has granted a formal recommendation for the use of Actellic® 300CS in malaria vector control. The WHO recommendation opens up additional opportunities for more malaria control programs around the world to access this new long lasting insecticide formulation designed for the control of pyrethroid resistant mosquitoes.

Syngenta believes that people deserve to live their lives uninterrupted by mosquitoes and the diseases that they can transmit. Syngenta has a rich pipeline of insecticides and access to advanced delivery technologies and consequently has been providing leading edge solutions on mosquito control for decades.

Mosquitoes have evolved to survive a number of the existing control products and this threatens the effectiveness of disease prevention programs. IVCC is a product development partnership committed to working with industrial partners to accelerate the development and introduction of new tools to meet these challenges. Syngenta and IVCC have had a long standing collaboration to accelerate and enrich the innovation pipeline for mosquito control.

The development of Actellic 300CS was initiated in 2007, not only to control resistance to the pyrethroid class of chemistry, but also deliver longer lasting performance to facilitate greater program efficiency in spraying programs. Since then, the WHO Global Plan for Insecticide Resistance Management recommends the deployment of non pyrethroid products when programs are looking for technology to complement mass distribution of long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets.

Syngenta used their expertise in microencapsulation technology to create Actellic 300CS, which is designed specifically for residual spraying. Numerous independent trials have demonstrated at least 9 months residual performance on a range of household surfaces, a significant improvement over current alternatives. Trials have also demonstrated control of pyrethroid resistant strains in both Anopheles and Culex species of mosquitoes.

This unique combination of controlling pyrethroid resistance with proprietary long lasting technology provides the opportunity for malaria control program managers have a greater impact on malaria as part of their integrated control program. Long lasting performance allows for reduction of spray program costs through moving to just one application per season whilst also managing pyrethroid resistance. This is essential when long lasting insecticide treated nets are currently dominated by this class of chemistry.

Actellic 300CS is the first commercial product to exit the IVCC pipeline, and this important WHO recognition meets one of Syngenta [MSB1] and IVCC’s commitments to provide access to new technology in disease endemic countries. More than a million people are now estimated to be protected by Actellic 300CS and production has been scaled up to support all key markets.

This development is just one step on the journey to develop new solutions to controlling mosquito-borne disease, and more alternatives are urgently needed, especially in the fight against growing insecticide resistance. Syngenta and IVCC continue to collaborate on the development of the next generation of insecticides, which will provide a robust solution to future insecticide resistance and equip malaria control programs with the tools they need to defeat malaria.

For more information on Actellic 300CS or Syngenta products please contact: vector.control@syngenta.com

Footnote: Actellic is a registered trademark of the the Syngenta Group companies

Syngenta and IVCC collaboration deliver new long-lasting insecticide formulation, Actellic® 300CS, now recommended by the World Health Organization to fight insecticide resistant mosquitoes

The IVCC Board of Trustees has appointed a new CEO to succeed Professor Janet Hemingway. Dr Nick Hamon comes to IVCC with over 25 years’ experience in product development in the crop protection and environmental science industries. Most recently he was Head of Sustainability at Bayer CropScience, North America based at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Before that he worked for Bayer as Vice President of Product Development and Sustainable Development and as Director of Development and Technical Services, which followed senior positions at Aventis and Rhone-Poulenc. Nick Hamon has a PhD in Insect Ecology from Rothamstead / University of Hertfordshire and a BSc in Applied Zoology from the University of Reading. He is an adjunct Professor of Entomology at North Carolina State University.

‘I am proud and excited to join IVCC at a time when it has made considerable progress on delivering the mission, vision and strategy that was set in 2005,’ Nick said. ‘As the first group of IVCC sponsored products are used at scale in Africa to prevent child mortality, I look forward to leading IVCC’s efforts to develop the next generation of public health insecticides that are so essential to fighting insect-borne disease, saving lives and lifting disease endemic countries out of poverty.’

Nick Hamon will take up his post in August 2013. Janet Hemingway, who has led IVCC since its formation in 2005, will continue to work with Nick in a support role. Janet said, ‘I am delighted with the appointment of Nick as CEO of IVCC. The massive scale up of insecticide-based control operations has saved millions of lives over the last decade, and Nick has the enthusiasm, qualifications and industrial experience to ensure that new products are brought to market promptly, consolidating recent gains and underpinning international malaria eradication efforts.’

Chairman of the IVCC Board of Trustees, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart said, ‘The Board is very pleased to make this appointment and wishes Nick Hamon and the team at IVCC every success as it moves forward with its mission to develop the vector control products that make such a major difference to the lives of millions of people who are affected by insect-borne disease. Janet Hemingway has made a seminal contribution to the formation of IVCC and to its achievement so far. We look forward to a smooth transition to a new phase of IVCC’s work.’

A list published by the Science Council last week reveals two of the UK’s leading practising scientists are working with IVCC. Since the company was formed in 2005, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart has been Chairman of its Board of Trustees, and Dr John Pickett Chairman of the Public Health Expert Scientific Advisory Committee.

Dr Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC, said that this was a significant recognition of the high level of scientific commitment to the work of IVCC worldwide. ‘We are truly honoured  to have some of the best scientists in the world cooperating with us. Some of them work with us directly like Sir Mark Moody-Stuart and Dr John Pickett, and others work within our partner organisations, and on our scientific advisory committees. Having 2% of UK top scientists on this list working with IVCC is a pretty good record!’

To identify its list of 100 top scientists, the Science Council organised a competition around different ‘types’ of scientist roles to get a broad picture of the many different ways people work with science across UK society.

Chairman of the judging panel, Science Council President Sir Tom Blundell said: “The list shows that not all scientists wear white coats and that scientists are not only found in universities and research labs: they are literally everywhere in a wide variety of careers and occupations.”

After seeing the list David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science said: “This list helpfully challenges the perception that there is only one kind of scientist and highlights the different types of skills and challenges a career in science involves.”

Since it was formed in 2005 with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,  IVCC has worked with some of the world’s leading agrochemical companies to identify new active ingredients that will form the basis of totally new insecticide solutions for malaria prevention, and ultimately help to bring about the eradication of the disease. IVCC’s Expert Scientific Advisory Committees have been responsible for drawing up stringent specifications for developing effective new tools in the fight against insect-borne disease, and for supporting partner organisations through the research and development process.

Companies partnering with IVCC have recently introduced two new insecticide formulations that prolong the effective life of current interventions and are proving to be valuable additional tools for malaria prevention.

Royal Society Pfizer Award for IVCC Partner 4th November 2013

A long-time collaborator of IVCC and LSTM has been awarded this year’s Royal Society Pfizer Award for his malaria research. Dr Abdoulaye Diabate, who is investigating the mating systems of Anopheles gambiae, will receive £60,000 towards a study which aims to cut the mosquito’s high reproductive rate and thereby control the spread of malaria.

Dr Diabate, who is from Burkina Faso, was nominated for the award by LSTM’s Head of Vector Biology, Professor Hilary Ranson. Professor Ranson, who will be present at the award ceremony, said: “Dr Diabate is an exceptionally talented and creative vector biologist who is a thoroughly deserving recipient of the Royal Society Pfizer Award. His pioneering work on mosquito mating behaviour is opening up exciting new possibilities for controlling malaria and I am delighted that he now has the opportunity to pilot some of these ideas via the Pfizer Award.”

“We have collaborated with Dr Diabate on several occasions and the work that he will be able to carry out following this award, will have genuine benefits for all of us involved in trying to control the transmission of malaria.”

The new study, funded by the Royal Society Pfizer Award, will allow Dr Diabate to gather results on male mating behaviour that will be instrumental to the implementation of a full range of new malaria control tools / technologies, for example, engineered mosquitos and sterile insect techniques which rely on a good understanding of male biology.

Commenting on his prize Dr Diabate said: “The Royal Society Pfizer Award is such a wonderful and motivating award for African scientists. Not only does the prize boost high quality research in Africa by empowering African research institutes but in my specific case it will also allow me o quire the skills and knowledge that can help us win the battle against Malaria.”

Dr Diabate is the head of the medical entomology laboratory of the Institut de Recherche en Science de la Santé/Centre Muraz, Burkina Faso.

The Royal Society Pfizer Award is designed to reward scientists, based in Africa, at the outset of their career and to promote science capacity building in the developing world. It is awarded annually. The award, first made in 2006, recognises research scientists making innovative contributions to the biological sciences, including basic medical science.