With the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), Energetics developed a roadmap process and created a strategic plan to align the research, development, and successful application of a safe, effective, and affordable vaccine to prevent malaria.

Client Need

Scientists have been working for decades to develop a preventive vaccine against malaria, a parasitic disease that kills more than one million people each year. Although they have shown that such a vaccine is possible, many challenges impede its development. As a result, the Malaria Vaccine Advisory Committee to the World Health Organization (WHO), coordinated by the WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR), called for a collective effort to explore and address these challenges.

Solution

Through a highly collaborative, 18-month process, Energetics helped stakeholders identify the challenges and key priorities involved in developing a viable vaccine.  Energetics helped the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative bring together more than 230 experts from 35 countries, representing 100 organizations, in a series of workshops held in Europe, Africa, and the United States. To document and communicate progress and results, Energetics prepared reports, briefings, and a website, and synthesized the results into a technology roadmap to accelerate the development of a malaria vaccine.

Results

The Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap was released in August 2006 after a two-year consultative process with the global malaria vaccine community.  Leaders in this community are now using the roadmap to stimulate further research and advocate for accelerating vaccine development.