Our Story

Malaika Vx builds on a multi-decade effort to develop a preventative vaccine for  HIV-1, through an understanding of natural immunity to HIV-1 infection in the Pumwani Sex Worker Cohort, Nairobi, Kenya. 

The Pumwani Cohort, established in 1985 by the late Dr. Frank Plummer, has been a groundbreaking project in the study of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), particularly HIV-1 infection.  The Cohort has grown from ~ 200 in 1985 to ~3,000 in 2025. Treatment is provided to more than 33,000 women across seven clinics. 

HIV scientific breakthroughs have been numerous. 

Approximately 5%-10% of the female sex workers in the Cohort remain HIV-IgG-seronegative for HIV-1, despite heavy exposure to the virus through active sex work. Discovery  of unique protective mechanisms described in the cohort, including very focused T cell immunity, serve as a natural “proof of concept” for the prevention of HIV-1 infection.  

This method of action has been recapitulated through the development of a novel vaccine construct in NHP studies, and extended via our AI and enhanced bioinformatics platform,  to other RNA and DNA viral infectious diseases.

A unique feature of Malaika Vx’s vaccine technology is that our core antigen platform is based decoding  natural immunity to infectious diseases, by scientists, working under Dr. Frank Plummer at Canada’s National Microbiology Lab, Public Health Agency of  Canada . 

Dr. Plummer was the 'Scientific Champion' for the development of rVSVΔG-EBOV-GP, licensed by Merck (ERVEBO®) for the for the prevention of Zaire ebola virus disease. This vaccine was quickly brought to clinical trials following the 2014-2015 outbreak in West Africa, and  instrumental in combating the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The vaccine platform has been expanded by global institutions for use to combat Ebola Sudan, Marburg, Lassa and SARS COV2. 

The Lab has a proven history of developing groundbreaking innovations to protect public health globally, including: advanced computer-based surveillance technologies (SARS, H1N1, Listeria); pioneering use of genetic and structural identification technologies (SARS, H1N1); CL3 /4 capabilities on the move (G8, G20 and Olympics, field diagnostics); and  deploying targeted monoclonal antibodies (mABs) for exposure to Ebola Zaire (zMapp).  

Scientific partnerships are our market differentiation.