Meeting report
MALVAC 2012 scientific forum: accelerating development of second-generation malaria vaccines
1 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
2 Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, 3010, Australia
3 Immunization and Vaccines Development Programme, Division for Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases, WHO Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo
4 Initiative for Vaccine Research, Department of Immunization, Vaccines & Biologicals, World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, Geneva, 1211-CH 27, Switzerland
Malaria Journal 2012, 11:372 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-11-372
Published: 9 November 2012Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) convened a malaria vaccines committee (MALVAC) scientific forum from 20 to 21 February 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland, to review the global malaria vaccine portfolio, to gain consensus on approaches to accelerate second-generation malaria vaccine development, and to discuss the need to update the vision and strategic goal of the Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap. This article summarizes the forum, which included reviews of leading Plasmodium falciparum vaccine candidates for pre-erythrocytic vaccines, blood-stage vaccines, and transmission-blocking vaccines. Other major topics included vaccine candidates against Plasmodium vivax, clinical trial site capacity development in Africa, trial design considerations for a second-generation malaria vaccine, adjuvant selection, and regulatory oversight functions including vaccine licensure.
