Sanaria and its Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project partners win the Concordia P3 Impact Award and Audience Choice Award

Sanaria is honored to be part of the Concordia public-private partnership (P3) Impact Award Winning team – the Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Program(BIMEP). Not only did the BIMEP win the award, but it also won the Audience Choice award, voted by attendees at the 2019 Concordia Annual Summit. This is the first time one project won both awards.

The P3 Impact Award was created by Concordia, the University of Virginia Darden School Institute for Business in Society, and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships to recognize and honor leading public-private partnerships (P3s) that improve communities and the world. For this award, a P3 refers to any cross-sector collaboration that features public, private, nonprofit, or non-governmental organizations and addresses societal problems.

The BIMEP is a long-term partnership, dedicated since 2004, to the elimination of malaria from Equatorial Guinea which had one of the highest rates of malaria transmission in the world, and where the disease was the leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Over the last 15 years the BIMEP has succeeded in reducing the rate of transmission of malaria by mosquitoes on Bioko Island by 99%, reducing the prevalence of malaria infection in children 2-14 years old by 76%, and reducing all-cause mortality among children under 5, largely attributable to malaria, by 63%.

In addition to sustaining malaria control efforts, the BIMEP is preparing to conduct a clinical trial of Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine, building on evidence from three prior clinical trials that demonstrate that the vaccine is safe, tolerable and immunogenic in adults and youths in Equatorial Guinea. Data from that clinical trial, coupled with evidence from studies ongoing in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States, will be used to seek licensure for the vaccine through the US FDA, European Medicines Agency (EMA), from the regulatory authority of Equatorial Guinea, and from other African regulatory authorities.

These substantial economic and social returns on investment required an unprecedented investment provided during the start-up or proof of concept phase by the Corporate partners led by Marathon Oil and Noble Energy, but increasingly by the Government of Equatorial Guinea.