ICASA 2019: Navigating Prevention at the Conference

The 20th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA 2019) is coming right up, December 2-7 in Kigali, Rwanda. Find details below on select events of interest and how to follow the conference. AVAC will be there along with many of our partners participating in sessions both before and during the conference. There are several ways you can link to HIV prevention research and rollout-related events—both in-person and from afar.

For the latest, including a list of poster presentations, visit our ICASA page.

ICASA 2019 HIV Prevention Research Roadmap

Amidst a wide range of topics that will be covered at the conference (full program available here), we have pulled together a roadmap of select sessions that may be of interest to those tracking biomedical prevention research and rollout. And on arrival, be sure to check out the various Networking Zone schedules in the Community Village for more great programming on prevention and more!

Download as a PDF or XLS file and please let us know of any other related events that should be added to the roadmap.

Pre-conferences

Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum Pre-Conference
Monday, December 2, 9:00 – 17:00 at the Kigali Marriott Hotel. Register here.

  • The Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum (BHPF)—co-organized by AfNHi (the network of HIV prevention research advocates in Africa) and the New HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Advocacy Society (NHVMAS)—puts HIV prevention research on the spotlight by providing a unique platform where participants gather to learn about progress made and best practices in biomedical HIV prevention research and development. The forum is a space for participants to share HIV prevention research related perspectives and experiences.

Satellite and Special Sessions

PEPFAR Watch
Tuesday, December 3, 8:00 – 11:00. RSVP here.

  • Does your country receive PEPFAR funding? PEPFAR’s annual planning process for 2020 is starting now. Join for a skills-building workshop—organized by Health GAP and partners—to find out how to monitor and influence PEPFAR via updates on how activists can ensure money is aligned with community priorities; share experiences and best practices to increase accountability and share tools for organizing and data analysis.

Why Do Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Costs Differ So Much: Methods or Setting?
Tuesday, December 3, 10:45 – 12:15 in room Jeanne Gapiya (MH4). Register at prep-costing.eventbrite.com.

  • This satellite session— co-hosted by the OPTIONS Consortium and Jilinde—will review why cost estimates and cost effectiveness of PrEP can vary so widely within and across programs, countries, and methodological approaches. Hear from a variety of programs and perspectives to identify key drivers of costs and how to make sense of estimates for use in modelling and programming.

Laying the Foundation for an HIV Cure in Africa
Tuesday, December 3, 18:30 – 20:30 in room Joel Nana (AD10).

20 Years After Abuja, What Next?
Wednesday, December 4, 10:45 – 12:15 in room Prof. Madeleine Okome (MH 3)

  • This special session—organized by the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA)—on the Abuja Declaration is a platform to evaluate the impact of various declarations on domestic funding and their implementation in Africa. The Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA) with a group of African and global HIV advocates including AVAC, has developed an African HIV Financing Scorecard in partnership with Accountability International as a means to analyse the existing funding, interrogate the gaps in required funding, and provides evidence-based advocacy messaging for action by the various stakeholders involved. The report will be released during this session and includes recommendations for an African advocacy campaign in the context of broader campaign to increase domestic funding for HIV programming.

ICASA on Social Media: Follow the conference in real-time on social media by following us on Twitter and Facebook—and using the official conference hashtag #ICASA2019.

AVAC Report 2019: With 2020 targets sure to be missed, we ask Now What?

Report cover

Today, AVAC released Now What?, our 2019 annual report on the state of the HIV prevention field. Each year, the AVAC Report frames the most pressing advocacy issues facing the HIV response. At the threshold of 2020, it’s clear that global goals for HIV prevention will miss the mark by a long shot.

Though important progress has been made, the crisis UNAIDS called out in 2016 persists today with new infections around 1.7 million annually, a far cry from the 2020 target of fewer than 500,000.

So, we asked ourselves, Now What?, and answered with cross-cutting analysis and an advocacy agenda to match.

FIRST, we call for leadership that is bold, visible and activist, from the new head of UNAIDS, to houses of parliament to civil society coalitions: take uncompromising stances, demand accountability, speak out for intersectional issues of race, gender, class and climate. This work needs to be funded, full-throttle and fearless.

SECOND, we call for the use of today’s most recent evidence to guide new prevention targets that will pave the way for epidemic control. Clear milestones for the prevention research pipeline must be set. Investments over the past decades have provided us with the prevention options we have today, and much-needed new strategies are under now investigation. The field needs targets for prevention research that people can understand and influence.

THIRD, we call for multilayered prevention approaches that are centered around the person, not the virus. Since last World AIDS Day, we’ve learned again, perhaps most strikingly from the ECHO trial, about the dynamic needs of women for HIV and pregnancy prevention. The complexity of translating results into policy, bring renewed urgency to the need for comprehensive HIV prevention and reproductive health approaches. Multilayered prevention incorporates multipurpose strategies (i.e., products that prevent both pregnancy and HIV) within programs designed to address structural barriers (i.e., policy reform, transforming community norms, facilitating educational empowerment).

2020 will be a pivotal year—join us in calling on leaders, from the grassroots to global capitals, to make 2020 a turning point, when siloes come down, crises are transformed by innovation, and prevention is center stage in the fight against HIV.

Happy reading, and we’d love to hear how you answer Now What?

POSTPONED: Nov 15 webinar on PK/PD & F/TAF

Due to last-minute scheduling conflicts, we must postpone Friday’s (Nov 15) webinar—PK, PD and F/TAF: What does an advocate need to know about the pharmacology of safety and efficacy and today’s PrEP drugs. We apologize for the inconvenience but stay tuned for details on its rescheduling!

And, in case you missed it, download and view the rest of the webinar series via the links below:

Trial Design Takes a Step in the Post PrEP Era: What will Gilead’s study of F/TAF among cisgender women tell us about next gen PrEP and next-gen trial design [Nov 13]

Gilead is designing a novel trial, planned to begin in Africa in 2020, to gather missing data about the safety and efficacy of F/TAF among cisgender women. What are the implications of this trial? The FDA’s Jeff Murray presented how an innovative design will enable a relatively smaller trial, and the questions it raises.
Recording and Slides: YouTube / Jeff Murray’s Slides

It’s Complicated—Implementation questions regarding price, programming and policies for Descovy as PrEP [Nov 11]

An array of experts helped us sift through the questions on pricing, policy and programming related to Descovy, none of which have easy answers, all of which have significant implications for PrEP implementation in the United States.
Recording and Slides: YouTube / David Hardy and Craig Hendrix’s Slides / Amy Killelea and Tim Horn’s Slides

Advocates’ Debrief on the Science of Daily F/TAF vs. TDF/FTC as PrEP [Oct 7]

This webinar was the first the series, responding to advocates’ desire to better understand the research to date on F/TAF as PrEP, especially as it relates to its safety profile [compared to TDF/FTC] and the lack of robust data in cisgender women.
Recording and Slides: YouTube / Andrew Hill’s slides / Monica Gandhi’s slides

For additional background visit our F/TAF page on our website at www.avac.org/ftaf.

Trial Design Takes a Step in the Post PrEP Era

What will Gilead’s study of F/TAF among cisgender women tell us about next gen PrEP and next gen trial design

The FDA’s October approval excluded F/TAF as PrEP “for those who have receptive vaginal sex.” Many voices have expressed outrage that Gilead’s strategy for F/TAF regulatory approval left women by the wayside. Gilead had previously claimed finding a relevant cohort of women would not be feasible. Gilead is designing a novel trial, planned to begin in Africa in 2020, to gather missing data about the safety and efficacy of F/TAF among cisgender women. What are the implications of this trial?

On Wednesday, November 13, the FDA’s Jeff Murray presented how an innovative design will enable a relatively smaller trial, and the questions it raises.

Recording and Slides: YouTube / Jeff Murray’s Slides

What’s up with F/TAF for PrEP: Webinars on safety, trial design and $$$

Next week, on November 11th, 13th and 15th, AVAC and partners will continue the webinar series addressing key issues related to the US FDA’s October approval of F/TAF as PrEP and its supplemental approval directing drug maker Gilead to conduct a trial among cisgender women. See below for webinar details and registration links, and check out the first webinar in this series from last month for more background.

Dubbed Descovy by its maker Gilead, F/TAF has prompted heated discussion on several critical fronts. The recent FDA approval excluded “those who have receptive vaginal sex” due to insufficient data about safety and efficacy among cisgender women. Following this decision, Gilead is going forward with a new trial among cisgender women that will involve innovations to trial design. In addition, advocates have posed important questions about how the safety data compare between F/TAF (Descovy) and TDF/FTC (Truvada) and the implications for marketing and access. To explore these and related questions, AVAC, IRMA, TAG, WRI and The Well Project are hosting a series of webinars.

It’s Complicated- Implementation questions regarding price, programming and policies for Descovy as PrEP

November 11, 10:00 – 11:15am EST
Register here.
We’ll probe what Descovy’s market presence will mean and discuss the advocacy priorities to meet the challenges and opportunities. These questions are informed by the fact that Truvada (aka TDF/FTC) is set to go off patent next year, several generic options are waiting in the wings, and funding PrEP-related services in the US rely on key programs. The presentations will be moderated by Kathie Hiers, CEO of AIDS Alabama, and include Amy Killelea (NASTAD), Tim Horn (NASTAD), David Hardy (HIVMA and Johns Hopkins University), and James Krellenstein (PrEP4All).

Trial Design Takes a Step in the Post PrEP Era: What will Gilead’s study of F/TAF among cisgender women tell us about next gen PrEP and next gen trial design

November 13, at 10:00 – 11:15am EST
Register here.
The FDA’s October approval excluded F/TAF as PrEP “for those who have receptive vaginal sex.” Many voices have expressed outrage that Gilead’s strategy for F/TAF regulatory approval left women by the wayside. Gilead had previously claimed finding a relevant cohort of women would not be feasible. Gilead is designing a novel trial, planned to begin in Africa in 2020, to gather missing data about the safety and efficacy of F/TAF among cisgender women. What are the implications of this trial? In this webinar, the FDA’s Jeff Murray will present how an innovative design will enable a relatively smaller trial, and the questions it raises.

PK, PD and F/TAF: What does an advocate need to know about the pharmacology of safety and efficacy and today’s PrEP drugs

November 15, 1-2pm EST
Register here.
Leading pharmacologists including Angela Kashuba (UNC), Craig Hendrix (Johns Hopkins) and Pete Anderson (University of Colorado) will join in a discussion on the important pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic questions related to F/TAF and TDF/FTC. We’ll explore questions about what drug levels matter, and where in the body drug needs to be to protect against HIV.

Check out the first webinar in this series from last month where we explored the background science of F/TAF vs TDF/FTC as PrEP.

As always, the webinars will be recorded and posted on the AVAC website. And we welcome any questions in advance!