Growing insecticide resistance is closely intertwined with lack of investment in research and development of novel public health insecticides.

In a two part series, published in International Pest Control,  IVCC CEO Justin McBeath, IVCC Technical Director Derric Nimmo, and IVCC (former) consultants Alan Ayers and Jeffrey Moe (Duke Global Health Institute), explore how a new US incentive programme (VERV) aims to mitigate the problem.

The first article focuses on, while the second piece poses questions to the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA), who coordinate the VERV programme, on the detail of the guidance for registrants.

Both articles are available to download via this post. We give thanks to IPC and its editor, Chris Endecot, for granting access for our readers.

IVCC participated at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Roll Back Malaria Vector Control Working Group in Kigali; which took place between 15^th and 17^th April 20204.  IVCC was an exhibitor at the conference, giving the opportunity for delegates to learn more about the scope our projects and initiatives.

IVCC CEO, Justin McBeath, unveiled IVCC’s strategy during the meeting. He also handed over the VCWG co-chair role at the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, which he’s held for two terms. We congratulate Dr El Hadji Amadou Niang on the new role.

Meanwhile, our team shared insights on ITN campaigns, private sector engagement, expanding the Vector Control Toolbox, humanitarian emergencies, and more.

You can now access the meeting presentations, photo gallery, e-poster, list of participants and more on the VCWG website, here.

We highlight presentations by:

• IVCC Senior Technical Manager, Janneke Snetselaar on Meta-analysis on the entomological effects of differentially treated ITNs in a multi-site experimental hut study in sub-Saharan Africa.
• IVCC Africa Coordinator, Andre Saibu, hosted a Panel discussion: New funding streams and local implementation capacity for IRS through Public-Private Partnership
• IVCC Consultant, Mike McDonald, also gave a presentation on Expanding the Vector Control Toolbox for Emergency Settings

We are proud to announce the unveiling of a commemorative plaque for the “Accelerate to Eliminate Malaria Program,” a five-year cooperative agreement funded by USAID and implemented by IVCC. Senior Technical Manager Graham Small and Communications Manager Laura Roberts Artal recently visited the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS), a long-term research partner, to mark this significant milestone.

The first day of the visit was marked by a tour of the CSRS insectary and laboratory in Abidjan, where the IVCC delegation was introduced to the cutting-edge research being conducted at the facility. The Global Laboratory Practices (GLP) team presented their latest findings on research projects funded by IVCC. These presentations highlighted the advancements and impact of their work in the fight against malaria. The discussions also covered safeguarding standards, equity, diversity, and gender policies, and underscored the crucial role of effective communication in organizational success.

The visit continued with a two-day workshop in Tiassalé, the village where CSRS conduct non-clinical studies to evaluate vector control tools. These studies, including semi-field and small-scale field trials, are conducted to establish how effective a new vector control product is at controlling mosquitoes in endemic settings.

The workshop aimed to engage local Tiassalé authorities and community members, emphasizing the importance of the research carried out by CSRS in Tiassalé. The discussions focused on how these research activities have contributed to reducing malaria transmission rates by targeting the disease vectors.

Throughout the visit, the IVCC team had the opportunity to engage with community leaders and local stakeholders, fostering a collaborative environment to further the goals of the “Accelerate to Eliminate Malaria Program.” This interaction not only highlighted the success of the research initiatives but also demonstrated the essential partnership between IVCC and CSRS in advancing malaria prevention efforts.

This visit and the unveiling of the plaque symbolize a shared commitment to innovative research and community engagement, essential components in the ongoing battle to eliminate malaria.

For more about this event visit:

• TV coverage from NCI – La Nouvelle Chaîne Ivoirienne.
• CSRS news story
• Day by day LinkedIn coverage by CSRS (Day 1, Day 2 and 3)

This visit to CSRS by the IVCC delegation and the community event at Tiassalé was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this story are the responsibility of IVCC and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Photography credit: A.A.Kone, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS)

The 8th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Society Conference was held in Kigali, Rwanda on 21–27 April 2024 under the theme “Grassroots mobilization to end malaria: invest, innovate and integrate”.

IVCC was an exhibitor at the conference, giving the opportunity for delegates to learn more about the scope our projects and initiatives.

Find out more about the 8th Pan-African Malaria Conference, hosted by The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Society, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH)- Rwanda and the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) online: https://mimafrica.rw/

New Nets Prevent 13 Million Malaria Cases in Sub-Saharan Africa

Compared to standard nets, the introduction of 56 million state-of-the-art mosquito nets in 17 countries across sub-Saharan Africa averted an estimated 13 million malaria cases and 24,600 deaths.

17 April 2024

GENEVA/LIVERPOOL – The New Nets Project, an initiative funded by Unitaid and the Global Fund and led by the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC), piloted the use of dual-insecticide nets in malaria-endemic countries between 2019 and 2022 to address the growing threat of insecticide resistance.

Anopheles mosquitoes are increasingly resistant to the pyrethroid insecticides used on standard insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). This may reduce the nets’ ability to protect people from malaria, so we must continue to develop and test new tools.

The BASF Interceptor® G2 ITNs are coated with chlorfenapyr, a new generation pyrrole insecticide, in combination with the standard pyrethroid insecticide. DCT’s Royal Guard® net incorporates a combination of pyriproxyfen and pyrethroid into the yarn of the net. Both ITNs are more effective against mosquitoes with pyrethroid resistance than standard nets are.

Between 2019 and 2022, the New Nets Project supported the deployment of 38.4 million nets across sub-Saharan Africa. In parallel, the Global Fund and PMI supported the deployment of millions of additional nets under an internal initiative (NTI). As a result, a total of 56 million mosquito nets were introduced in 17 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

Two clinical trials and five pilot studies, delivered through the New Nets Project as well as through partner funding, found the new ITNs to improve malaria control by approximately 20-50% in countries reporting insecticide resistance in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to standard nets.

The epidemiological evidence built throughout the project led the World Health Organization (WHO) to publish new recommendations supporting the use of pyrethroid-chlorfenapyr nets instead of pyrethroid-only nets in countries facing pyrethroid resistance. WHO also issued a conditional recommendation for the deployment of pyrethroid-pyriproxyfen nets instead of pyrethroid-only nets to prevent malaria in adults and children in areas with pyrethroid resistance.

Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid, said: “The New Nets Project has made a massive contribution to malaria control efforts, helping to accelerate introduction of next-generation bed nets – a critically important tool for reducing malaria cases and deaths. The success of this project was not guaranteed from the outset, but our collective efforts to tackle multiple access barriers simultaneously helped ensure that new nets could reach communities as quickly as possible. These partnerships will serve us well as we continue to seek out promising innovations to address challenges in the fight against malaria.”  

The additional cost per case of malaria averted using the Interceptor® G2 nets compared to a standard net ranged from $0.66–$3.56* The reduction in malaria cases and deaths from using the Interceptor® G2 nets, compared to a standard net, equated to a potential US$28.9 million in financial savings to health systems.

As the number of dual active ingredient ITNs being used increases year on year, the subsequent financial savings to the health system will also increase, underlining the long-term financial and public health benefits of this additional investment.

In addition, the operational pilots also produced a set of guidelines for how to effectively incorporate these new nets into multi-product campaigns and continuous distribution.

Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund, said: “We are delighted to see that the dual active ingredient insecticide-treated nets have demonstrated exceptional impact against malaria. The success of the New Nets Project is proof that, by fostering collaboration across global health partners, harnessing innovation, and using market-shaping approaches, we can fight insecticide resistance, make our interventions highly cost-effective and accelerate progress against malaria. Together with our partners, we will continue to invest in the insecticide-treated net innovation pipeline to avert more cases, save more lives, and get back on track towards the global malaria goals.”

Catalytic market-shaping work under the New Nets Project increased supply and demand of dual active ingredient nets, ensuring equitable and affordable access to novel vector control products for country level control programs and vulnerable populations.

UK-based social finance company MedAccess and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported access to Interceptor® G2 nets in 20+ countries by providing a volume guarantee that enabled BASF to reduce the price procurers pay for the nets. This, combined with continued efforts by partners to scale the introduction of all dual active ingredient nets as they receive WHO prequalification, will help to ensure sustainability beyond the completion of the project.

David McGuire, Director Access and Market Shaping at IVCC, said: “The catalytic market-shaping work under the New Nets Project to increase supply and demand for dual-insecticide nets laid the foundation for ensuring equitable and affordable access to these novel vector control products. The NNP has demonstrated, along with the NgenIRS project, the importance and potential impact of market interventions to ensure that the most vulnerable have access to the best vector control. Similar approaches will be critical for novel products emerging from IVCC’s development pipeline.”

The evidence built through the New Nets Project for the use of the dual active ingredient ITNs is testament to the importance of product-development and catalytic market-shaping interventions to deliver and scale up high-impact, cost-effective prevention tools that meet the needs of malaria-endemic countries.

Dr. Michael Charles, CEO of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, said: “The findings of the New Nets Project demonstrate the value of investments into state-of-the-art tools in the fight against malaria. We always say that there is no silver bullet to eliminating malaria and we cannot rely on single interventions, but rather invest in a suite of tools, which when combined, will have the biggest impact on defeating this disease. The dual-insecticide nets are a shining example of one of these tools and the results, coupled with the savings for health systems, make the case for their continued rollout globally.”

* These calculated savings are based on end-of-project pricing and differ between locations depending on local factors including local infrastructure and scale of procurement.

For further information, please contact:

Laura Roberts, Communications Manager

laura.roberts@ivcc.com

(+44) 07849 700582

Project and product information

The New Nets Project (NNP)
The Global Fund and Unitaid are each investing US$33 million between 2018 to 2022 to introduce new insecticide-treated nets to fight malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The New Nets Project is working to build the evidence base around, and prime the market for, the next generation of nets, which are treated with two different types of insecticide to help improve control of mosquitoes.

The project will generate evidence on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the new dual insecticide nets to inform a WHO policy decision on dual-AI nets and guide decision-making around product procurement at the country level. It is expected that the New Nets Project – with its unique design of parallel collection of epidemiological data and cost-effectiveness studies – will significantly reduce the timeline for entry of the new nets into the market.

The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are key operational and financial partners. A coalition led by IVCC is implementing the project which includes The Alliance for Malaria Prevention, Imperial College London, The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, PATH, PSI and Tulane University.

About IVCC

IVCC is the only Product Development Partnership (PDP) focused on solutions for vector control. IVCC was established in 2005, through an initial grant to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As a registered charity in the UK, IVCC receives grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Aid, USAID, The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to partner with different stakeholders across industry, scientific institutions and endemic countries to facilitate the development and availability of novel and improved public health insecticides and formulations which can combat the rapidly growing. problem of insecticide resistance. In addition, IVCC has received funding from Unitaid and the Global Fund to implement catalytic market access projects, such as NgenIRS and the New Nets Project which support the rapid and scaled deployment of vector control tools. IVCC has three core values of partnership, innovation and respect, and strives to live these values in our dealings with all partners.

Website: ivcc.com
X (Twitter):  @invectorcontrol
LinkedIn: IVCC (Innovative Vector Control Consortium)

About Unitaid

Unitaid saves lives by making new health products available and affordable for people in low- and middle-income countries. Unitaid works with partners to identify innovative treatments, tests and tools, helps tackle the market barriers that are holding them back, and gets them to the people who need them most – fast. Since it was created in 2006, Unitaid has unlocked access to more than 100 groundbreaking health products to help address the world’s greatest health challenges, including HIV, TB, and malaria; women’s and children’s health; and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Every year, these products benefit more than 170 million people. Unitaid is a hosted partnership of the World Health Organization.

About the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

The Global Fund is a worldwide partnership to defeat HIV, TB and malaria and ensure a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all. We raise and invest more than US$5 billion a year to fight the deadliest infectious diseases, challenge the injustice that fuels them, and strengthen health systems and pandemic preparedness in more than 100 of the hardest hit countries. We unite world leaders, communities, civil society, health workers and the private sector to find solutions that have the most impact, and we take them to scale worldwide. Since 2002, the Global Fund partnership has saved 59 million lives.

For more information, please visit: www.theglobalfund.org

Information on the work of the Global Fund is available at www.theglobalfund.org

Follow the Global Fund on X: http://twitter.com/globalfund

Join the Global Fund on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theglobalfund

Interceptor® G2
Interceptor® G2 is a second-generation ITN developed by BASF with a combination of chlorfenapyr and alpha-cypermethrin to control insecticide resistant mosquitoes. This novel mode of action in vector control exploits mosquito enzymatic systems against themselves and shows no cross-resistance to other insecticide classes. Unlike pyrethroids, the chlorfenapyr target site of activity is not the insect nervous system. Instead, chlorfenapyr acts, after being metabolized by P450 enzymes at the cellular level, by disrupting respiratory pathways and proton gradients through the uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation within the mitochondria. The Interceptor® G2 net has a WHO prequalification listing.

Royal Guard®
Royal Guard® is an ITN developed by Disease Control Technologies to provide vector control through both the personal protection of traditional mosquito knockdown and mortality, as well as a reduction in fecundity of any mosquitoes that manage to survive exposure to the products pyrethroid active ingredient. The intended benefit of the insect growth regulator, pyriproxyfen, is to reduce the fecundity of adult female mosquitoes and, therefore, yield an overall reduction in the vector population by inhibiting egg laying, larval-pupal transformation and the emergence of functioning young adult mosquitos. The Royal Guard® net has a WHO prequalification listing.

Image credit: PSI Mali