Madagascar Institute for Vaccine Research

University of Antananarivo - IVI Collaborating Center

Background

IVI and the University of Antananarivo (UoA) in Madagascar have a longstanding partnership in vaccine development and infectious disease research. Learn more about IVI programs in Madagascar here
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On December 10, 2021, the UoA-IVI Collaborating Center, officially named the Madagascar Institute for Vaccine Research (MIVR), opened and began operations at the UoA in Madagascar.

A new building on the premises of the UoA was constructed using overhead (indirect) cost funding from ongoing and upcoming projects. This newly established center will support the university with additional educational capacity and help Madagascar establish a center of excellence for vaccine research including the conduct of clinical trials.

Watch the opening ceremony of the UoA-IVI Collaboration Center here.

MIVR activities include:
  • Implementation of collaborative programs
  • Development and submission of proposals for future research and study programs
  • Development of academic programs, including teaching and scholarly initiatives
  • Seconding and exchange of staff

Collaborative Programs

MIVR is hosting the following programs:

COVID-19 Research in African Settings (COVIA)
In response to the disproportionate lack of disease burden data in low- and middle- income countries, COVIA aims to support local institutions in Madagascar and Burkina Faso to detect COVID-19 cases by implementing health care facility-based disease surveillance, vaccine hesitancy surveys, and the study of febrile samples collected in the typhoid programs. In Madagascar, COVIA is operating in health clinics across three rural districts of Antananarivo. COVIA is supported by funding from Sweden’s Sida.
Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine Introduction in Africa program (THECA)
Grant agreement: RIA2017S-2027
THECA is a consortium led by the University of Cambridge Department of Medicine
and funded by a €13 million Euro grant from the European and Developing Countries
Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). THECA includes a cluster-randomized trial in
Agogo, Ghana and a mass vaccination campaign in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo using the Typbar-TCV (Vi-TT) typhoid conjugate vaccine. From 2019-2023,
this project will assess the safety, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of Vi-TT and its
ability to limit the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
Severe Typhoid in Africa (SETA) Plus
SETA Plus is a continuation of IVI’s typhoid surveillance programs in Africa, which began in 2010 with the Typhoid Fever Surveillance in Africa Program (TSAP) and continued from 2015 with the SETA program, a multi-country surveillance study to understand the burden of severe typhoid fever and the associated case fatalities, clinical characteristics, and potential host risk factors that may be related to the disease severity.

Vaccines Against Schistosomiasis for Africa (VASA)
European Union Horizon 2020 Grant: 815643
With a €6.6 million Euro grant from EU Horizons 2020, The University of Cambridge and IVI launched VASA in 2019 to conduct a Phase I clinical study of the SchistoShield® anti-schistosomiasis vaccine in Madagascar. This project includes disease surveillance and cost-effectiveness studies, the formation of a global consortium to advance schistosomiasis vaccine research, and an Integrated Product Development Plan (IPDP) for development of the vaccine backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Find additional details on IVI schistosomiasis programs in Madagascar here.

Address & Contact Details

Madagascar Institute for Vaccine Research

Présidence de l'Université d'Antananarivo: BP 566 Antananarivo, 101, Madagascar

T: +261 20 22 326 39