Monoclonal antibodies for malaria prevention: preferred product characteristics and clinical development considerations

Book excerpt: Preferred product characteristics (PPCs) are key tools to incentivize and guide the development of urgently needed health products. The PPCs published here aim to articulate the public health need, preferred characteristics, and clinical development considerations for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for malaria prevention. Alongside the development of new malaria vaccines and chemoprevention drugs, there have been recent R&D advances in the development of mAbs for malaria prevention. Passive immunization with mAbs through direct administration of functional antibodies could potentially overcome some of the limitations of vaccines by providing immediate protection. Furthermore, mAbs with simplified dose regimens could potentially circumvent some of the coverage and adherence issues faced by malaria chemoprevention. To support this quickly developing R&D area, WHO convened a scientific development group to consider the PPCs for mAbs to be used for malaria prevention, with a focus on the reduction of morbidity and mortality in infants and children due to Plasmodium falciparum.