In 2022, PFSCM was appointed as a procurement services agent (PSA) for the new Partnership for Vivax Elimination (PAVE) program, which was launched in July 2021.
The PAVE program is led by Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and PATH, and will support countries in the elimination of P.vivax – a complex and persistent type of malaria that poses a risk to more than one-third of the world’s population.
MMV and other PAVE partners in a joint release explained that P. vivax accounts for between 5.9 and 7.1 million estimated clinical cases every year, and is the most common type of malaria outside of sub-Saharan Africa. It presents a major challenge to achieving global malaria targets because of the difficulties in eliminating hypnozoites, a form of the parasite that remains in a person’s liver even after successful blood-stage treatment, leading to malaria relapses and contributing significantly to transmission.
The report further explains that effectively tackling P. vivax requires treating both the blood- and liver-stages of infection – this approach is known as radical cure. MMV explains that PAVE works closely with the WHO, National Malaria Control Programmes, and country-based partners to support the introduction and use of effective diagnostics and treatments for P. vivax malaria.
This includes shorter-course primaquine and single-dose tafenoquine liver-stage treatments, and better point-of-care glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) diagnostics needed to identify patients that are at risk of having adverse reactions to the class of drugs currently used for liver-stage treatments. Patients with the genetic disorder known as G6PD deficiency need to be screened because they are at risk of developing haemolytic anaemia when taking these drugs.
In its role as PSA, PFSCM will manage the operational supply process for tafenoquine and the G6PD analyzers. This entails product registration, procurement, quality assurance, and delivery of the products to PAVE program countries. This year, the first deliveries will be made to Papua New Guinea and Peru.
Learn more about the PAVE program, and the partners here: