IVI and Gambia

 

Ongoing Collaboration

 

Advancing Research Capacity in West Africa (ARC-WA)

Since 2023, IVI has been leading a consortium working on two tracks:

  • Track A: Preparing clinical trial sites in West Africa for Good Clinical Practices (GCP)-compliant Phase 2b and 3 Lassa Fever vaccine clinical trials. 
  • Track B: Developing and advancing concepts specific for outbreak scenarios to prepare and sustain clinical trial facilities in West Africa and—together with local and regional partners as well as stakeholders in the global ecosystem—implementing clinical research strategies and procedures to rapidly initiate clinical evidence generation around vaccines and other biological countermeasures.

 

Clinical trial sites are being established in Kenema, Sierra Leone; Phebe, Liberia; and Owo, Irrua, Abakaliki, and Bauchi, Nigeria. Wider engagement activities in West Africa and the Sahel are planned. 

 

The project is supported by a $17.9 million USD grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). CEPI sees this project in West Africa as a critical component of their 100 Day Mission, to be able to prepare the sub-continent with a disease-agnostic network that can respond to generate research to any pathogen in an outbreak scenario. They intend to work with Africa CDC to roll out a similar model across the whole of Africa.

 

Consortium members and partners include the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Margan Clinical Research Organization (MMARCRO) in Ghana, RCGH, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Germany, the CEPI Enable Project, IAVI, Pharmalys, IQVIA, Edes & Associates, and Africa CDC.

 

Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium (SAVAC) 2.0

SAVAC 2.0 was established in 2023 as a follow-on to the SAVAC 1.0 project, which sought to strengthen existing international networks and bringing new stakeholders into the global effort to introduce Group A Strep (GAS) vaccines. 

 

SAVAC 2.0 will further accelerate the development of GAS vaccines by paving the way for clinical trials, engaging with industry stakeholders, addressing important questions regarding Strep A vaccine safety, and preparing countries and global stakeholders for the implementation of a Strep A vaccine.

 

In order to conduct GAS epidemiological surveillance and hold future vaccine clinical trials, SAVAC is working with its partners in Fiji, The Gambia, Malawi, and Chandigarh, India to establish sentinel sites to host these field activities. 

 

SAVAC 2.0 partners include the Kids Research Institute in Perth, Australia; the Murdoch Children Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia; Shift Health in Toronto, Canada; the WHO; and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, USA. SAVAC 2.0 is made possible by $11.19 million USD in grants from the Wellcome Trust, Open Philanthropy, and the Leducq Foundation.

 

The Gambia is a non-member state of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). To read about IVI’s member state benefits package, click here.