PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative and Crucell to test new malaria vaccine approach
The US-based PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP), and Crucell N.V. announced a collaboration to accelerate development of a promising type of malaria vaccine. Through funding from the USAID MVDP, the partners will conduct studies to determine the effectiveness of Crucell's novel prime-boost vaccine approach against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. This approach uses Crucell's proprietary recombinant adenoviruses to deliver a malaria antigen to the immune system.
For MVI, this partnership adds to its existing portfolio a vaccine approach with the potential to elicit a more comprehensive immune response than has been seen to date from the circumsporozoite protein (CSP), the only antigen that has proven to be protective against malaria in controlled challenge studies and field studies. Using Crucell's AdVac technology with two different vectors — the adenovirus serotypes Ad35 and Ad26 — as delivery mechanisms, this approach seeks to elicit a protective immune response obtained from delivering the CSP. The safety, immunogenicity and efficacy data from these studies will further advance the research forward development of a safe and highly efficacious malaria vaccine.
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