Analysis of research and development priorities for Malaria – working paper

Overview

This document provides a prioritization framework for the R&D of malaria health products as a basis for a consultative process through the WHO Global Observatory for Health R&D. The report is relevant for stakeholders working in science and innovation to achieve a world free from malaria. 

In order to meet the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 (GTS) goals, innovation is needed including new health products and strategies to implement them. Five key challenges thatrepresent threats or barriers to achieving the GTS goals that can be alleviated with new health products were identified
• Biological adaptation, leading to resistance
• Addressing transmission
• Transforming surveillance
• Achieving universal access
• P. vivax and non-falciparum species

Potential product solutions to these challenges were identified from three existing research agendas, the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA), malERA Refresh and Action and Investment to defeat Malaria (AIM) as well as other literature. The potential solutions were overlaid with thecurrent product development pipelines to identify gaps and opportunities. Potential product solutions were grouped based on the current status of the malaria R&D pipeline as ‘improve’ – tools which are improved versions of the existing core interventions e.g. new partner drugs in ACTs; ‘innovate’ –novel tools and technologies, e.g. a new active ingredient with insecticidal properties; and ‘investigate’ – novel concepts and technologies at discovery stage e.g. gene drive to prevent mosquitoes carrying malaria parasites. Lastly, a novel scoring system was constructed to rank potential product solutions based on their applicability to the challenges, the status in the research pipeline and the relative cost of bringing the potential product solution to market. The report and prioritization framework were developed by the Malaria Eradication Scientific Alliance (MESA) together with the WHO Department of Innovation, Evidence and Research (WHO IER) and the WHO
Global Malaria Programme (WHO GMP) and responded to feedback from the Malaria Policy Advisory
Committee (MPAC) and WHO GMP members. The outputs are summarized in Table i.

The objective of this report is to provide a prioritization framework for the R&D of malaria health products as a basis of a consultative process through WHO mechanisms. The quantitative prioritization framework presented here is one of many possible approaches and a consultation with partners is needed as a next step.

To realize the potential health products identified here, basic science is needed to advance product development. For health products to have an impact in malaria, implementation science is needed to operationalize new tools in combination with the existing core interventions for malaria, including surveillance.

Funding research and programme implementation are both critical for achieving the goals of the GTS. Finite financial resources are hindering progress towards the GTS goals and as such, prioritizing research can be a useful way to make the most of the available investments. Given that different funders have different strategic objectives and stakeholders’ needs a diverse landscape of funders is needed to pursue the R&D opportunities proposed here.