Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium – Pharmacovigilance Activities

The aim of the Malaria in Pregnancy (MiP) Consortium is to identify and evaluate, as speedily and effectively as possible, new ways of preventing and treating malaria in pregnancy to improve the evidence base for its control.  The research agenda of the MiP Consortium, based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), is framed around 4 main themes:

1) Case management Africa, Asia and Latin America
2) Prevention Africa
3) Prevention non Africa
4) Public Health Impact

The University of Washington provides leadership and support for the MiP Consortium’s cross-cutting research activities in the area of pharmacovigilance.  For example, a centralized, pharmacovigilance database for safety reporting of pregnant women within the MiP Consortium project sites who are exposed to antimalarial drugs has been established at the LSTM and this pooled safety information will be used for the identification and evaluation of safety signals.

We are also developing and field testing, in selected MiP Consortium sites (Kenya, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Thailand), observational methodologies and improved methods for active surveillance of antimalarial drug use in early pregnancy and related pregnancy outcomes, with an emphasis on documenting any use of ACTs during early pregnancy. The proposed study will produce complementary information (i.e., 1st trimester safety) to that collected in the MiPc trials that focus safety and efficacy of antimalarial treatment, either curative or preventive, in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy.

For more information on the Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium, please visit their website: http://www.mip-consortium.org