The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) said it has received a $3.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to assist studies to measure the effectiveness of typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) in West Africa.

The grant comes after a consortium, led by the University of Cambridge, received a 13 million-euro grant from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).

This EDCTP grant will fund the assessment of the effectiveness of a novel TCV through two clinical studies -- a cluster-randomized trial in Ghana and a mass vaccination campaign with a nested case-control effectiveness component in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

IVI is an integral part of the consortium with partners from Ghana, the DRC, Belgium, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, the U.K., and the U.S. The association plans to provide technical support to researchers using the grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation until May 2023.

“Typhoid is a poverty-associated infectious disease. It strikes the impoverished and frequently occurs in low-income settings where there is a lack of access to clean water and where sanitation and hygiene are poor. Infants and young children are at higher risk,” said Justin Im, IVI’s associate research scientist in the epidemiology and outcomes unit. “IVI is proud to be a member of the consortium that will evaluate the effectiveness of the novel TCV.”

IVI Director General Jerome Kim said, “IVI is in the process of clinical development of our TCVs jointly with SK Bioscience and Bio Farma. The new studies in West Africa will provide an important opportunity to measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of novel TCVs.”

IVI will bank upon its demonstrated capabilities in epidemiological studies and clinical trials to successfully conduct the studies in collaboration with UCAM and other consortium partners in its concerted efforts to accelerate its use in people who need the vaccine the most, Kim added.