Uganda's Makerere University receives AMANET grant for malaria vaccine trial

The College of Health Sciences at Uganda's Makerere University will receive a grant from the African Malaria Network Trust to begin trials of the malaria vaccine candidate GMZ2 in Uganda's Iganga and Mayuge districts, Wen Kilama, managing trustee of AMANET, said Monday at the opening of the sixth Basic Research Ethics Workshop for African Ethics Committees, the New Vision reports.

According to Kilama, CHS will receive the funding "[b]efore the end of this year" and will use the grant for capacity building, personnel training, and participant recruitment and education in preparation for the vaccine trial (Bugembe, New Vision, 8/27). Although Kilama did not announce a date for the grant signing or the amount of funding, he said the grant is guaranteed (Kirunda, Monitor, 8/26).

State Minister of Health Emmanuel Otaala at the opening of the workshop encouraged researchers to follow ethical procedures and "protect the participants" when implementing the trial. Kilama recommended establishing and enhancing ethics review committees to ensure that trial participants are protected. Otaala added that research efforts in Africa "must be geared towards finding suitable drugs and vaccines for diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and [HIV/AIDS], which are the main causes of high mortality and morbidity rates on the continent."

Makerere University is one of 21 African institutions receiving funding from AMANET, which is conducting separate trials of the malaria vaccine candidates MSP3 LSP in Burkina Faso and Tanzania, GMZ2 in Gabon and AMA1 in Mali (New Vision, 8/27). More than 300 people die from malaria daily in Uganda, primarily children younger than age five and pregnant women, the Monitor reports (Monitor, 8/26).