Download the Tech Updates highlighting vector biology and control news, publications and resources.
Given the breadth of vector control related literature, we are unable to include all relevant work. These updates are intended to focus primarily on Anopheles biology and a subset of control topics with global relevance.
Any views expressed in the updates do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of IVCC. In many cases, we directly quote sections of published work. Mention of trade names or commercial products is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by IVCC or its funders.
IVCC is pleased to announce that it has received its third and largest grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with an additional $75million over the next five years. The grant will continue to support IVCC’s work in vector control, especially preserving and expanding gains against malaria by developing innovative vector control products that prevent transmission of malaria from mosquitos to vulnerable populations. In particular, the grant will contribute to development costs of three new insecticides currently in pre-development and other related tools and solutions, the total costs shared with industry and other funders.
Sir Mark Moody Stuart, Chairman of the IVCC Board of Trustees, said, ‘This is a remarkable time for IVCC in its 10th year of discovering and developing new vector control tools. This substantial grant is evidence of the successful journey so far travelled, and we are grateful for the continued support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and all our partners. Vector control has been shown to have played a major role in the rolling back of malaria over the past 15 years and this grant will help to maintain that momentum through the new public health insecticides that are about to go into full development.’
Dr Nick Hamon, IVCC’s CEO said, ‘We are very pleased to have received this award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, coming as it does at a crucial point in IVCC’s strategy to provide malaria control programmes with the vector control tools they need to continue the battle to eradicate malaria. We have a full pipeline of novel vector control products, and next year several innovative compounds will go into final development. We are also working with new partners, and new funders to ensure these insecticide resistance-breaking products are delivered cost effectively and speedily to the market.’
IVCC is also supported by funding from UKAID, USAID, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and UNITAID.
World Mosquito Day Announcement from Sumitomo & IVCC 20th August 2015Sumitomo Chemical and IVCC have been working for the past 5 years to develop a new active ingredient with a novel mode of action for use in the fight against the mosquitoes that transmit malaria and other debilitating and often fatal diseases.
Extensive laboratory based studies demonstrating the safety and efficacy of this chemistry against insecticide resistant mosquitoes have now been completed. On World Mosquito Day, that commemorates the 1897 discovery by Sir Ronald Ross that female mosquitoes transmit malaria, we are delighted to announce these studies have moved to the next phase. This includes evaluating the performance of a range of prototype products in both laboratory and semi-field based settings.
Read the full press release in the attached file.
$65M Boost for New Insecticide Use in Africa 1st February 2016A new $65 million initiative to boost malaria control was announced today in Geneva. IVCC signed a partnership agreement with Unitaid in a project that will combat resistance to insecticides by improving access to new, low-cost anti-mosquito sprays across Africa.
The Next Generation Indoor Residual Spray project, known as NgenIRS, will support countries in obtaining new and effective insecticides at lower prices to spray walls in homes and fight growing insecticide resistance. Over four years, the project aims to protect as many as 50 million people from malaria in 16 African countries. Despite its effectiveness in combating malaria, indoor spraying of walls has fallen by 40 per cent in the past four years. The drop is due to increased resistance of mosquitoes to older products and higher cost of new alternatives.
IVCC will team up with the US President’s Malaria Initiative, Abt Associates, PATH and the Global Fund to work with industry and country malaria-control programmes to make alternative insecticides with high efficacy more readily available in countries with a high burden of malaria. The initiative will use a co-payment from Unitaid to bring down the price of these new and more effective products in the short term.
A further aim is to reduce the cost of procuring products in the long term through improved forecasting and increased competition among manufacturers.
Welcoming the project, Dr Nick Hamon, IVCC CEO said, “recent evidence has shown that insecticides are the first line of defence against malaria, responsible for nearly 80 per cent of malaria cases averted since 2000. We are working with our industry partners to bring to market as soon as possible novel insecticides that are in the pipeline.’
Lelio Marmora, Executive Director of Unitaid said that the initiative would bolster the central role of insecticides in controlling malaria. “If the insecticide resistance continues to spread unabated, there could be 120,000 more deaths from malaria a year”, he said. “Unless newer insecticides are used, we run the risk of considerable reversals in the fight against malaria. This is the first of many other initiatives by Unitaid to control the spread of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.”
Speaking at the launch of the project, Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, said that it would help maintain the effectiveness of vector control in the short term and encourage competition as prices decrease and demand grows. “Effective vector control is a cornerstone of our global strategy for malaria,’ he said. “It is responsible for many of the gains seen over the last decade in malaria control and elimination. We welcome this joint initiative to accelerate the development and deployment of new insecticides and vector control tools.”
Find out more at www.ivcc.com/market-access/ngenirs/
Novel Mosquito Net Marks Breakthrough in New LLINs 17th November 2016A novel mosquito net that combines the pyrrole chlorfenapyr and the pyrethroid alpha-cypermethrin represents a breakthrough in the development of Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) to control pyrethroid resistant mosquitoes.
A novel mosquito net that kills insecticide resistant mosquitoes which would normally survive exposure to standard pyrethroid treated nets marks a breakthrough in the development of new long-lasting nets that can meet the challenge of malaria control in countries in areas of high insecticide resistance, reports a new study published in Plos One. The project was a partnership between IVCC, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the West African vector control trial site (CREC) in Benin, which together with the chemical company BASF SE, have developed and evaluated a new type of long lasting net, Interceptor® G2.
LLINs that kill the Anopheline mosquitoes which transmit malaria are the simplest and most widely used method to prevent the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over half the population of sub-Saharan Africa now sleeps under LLIN and this has helped to reduce malaria cases by a third and mortality rates by two thirds over the last 15 years.
Until recently, the LLIN technology has been wholly dependent on pyrethroids as the only class of insecticide safe to use on LLIN. The rapid spread of resistance to these insecticides in malarial mosquitoes threatens further progress unless new types of insecticide which are both effective and safe can be developed. Professor Mark Rowland and Dr Raphael N’Guessan of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine anticipated this problem over 13 years ago. It was discussed with BASF to repurpose an insecticide which previously had been used to control termites and pests from indoor areas including commercial kitchens.
Mark Rowland said: “Back then we knew that selection of resistance to pyrethroids in malarial mosquitoes was only a question of time. The challenge was to identify a suitable insecticide that had right combination of residual efficacy against insects, low water solubility, no cross resistance to other classes of insecticide and was safe to use on nets. Chlorfenapyr, a pyrrole insecticide, seemed to have that rare collection of attributes and we started working with BASF. A few years later BASF and LSHTM had demonstrated chlorfenapyr’s potential in bioassay, subjected it to WHO toxicological risk assessment, and completed the first experimental hut trials, small-scale studies under house-like conditions in West and East Africa”.
In 2011, BASF entered into full partnership with IVCC and set its sights on developing a long lasting insecticidal net which would combine chlorfenapyr and the pyrethroid alpha-cypermethrin.
Dr Susanne Stutz, the BASF Project Manager, said: “Even then it was not plain sailing. Chlorfenapyr would simply not behave predictably in laboratory bioassay. However, when applied to nets and testing in experimental hut trials, chlorfenapyr would always kill mosquitoes that made contact with the netting. The explanation lies in the chlorfenapyr’s unique mode of action. Unlike standard public health insecticide which are neurotoxic, chlorfenapyr disrupts cellular respiratory pathways and is most toxic to mosquitoes which are active at night when they make contact with the net”.
The target product profile set by BASF and IVCC was a chlorfenpyr / alpha-cypermethrin mixture long-lasting insecticidal net that would remain effective against pyrethroid resistant mosquitoes after 20 standardised washes, a threshold established by WHO for all LLIN. Four years later, Interceptor® G2, has fulfilled its initial promise and in experimental hut trials killed over 70% of pyrethoid-resistant Anopheles gambiae when the standard pyrethroid LLIN killed only 20%. The long lasting formulation retained insecticidal activity on the net after 20 standardized washes in soap solution.
Raphael N’Guessan, the scientist who managed the trials in West Africa said: “The unique mode of action of chlorfenapyr means that insecticide resistance based on target site insensitivity in the insect nervous system and other mechanisms shows no cross resistance to chlorfenapyr. The mosquito mortality rates generated by Interceptor® G2 are similar to the rates generated by standard pyrethroid LLIN 10 years ago when most mosquitoes were fully susceptible to pyrethroids”
This publication marks the first of several trials of Interceptor® G2 carried out in African trial sites in Benin, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Tanzania. BASF has submitted the Interceptor® G2 dossier to the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme for interim recommendation expected in March 2017.
David Malone, IVCC Technical Manager, said: “Africa has become a net using culture. Insecticide treated nets are the most important tool we have to prevent malaria. This new technology demonstrates that insecticide treated nets will continue to be an essential weapon in the fight against malaria in the future despite pyrethroid resistance.”
The development and evaluation of Interceptor® G2 is the result of partnership between the BASF SE of Germany, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and IVCC.
The full publication can be found at Plos One:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165925