How to be #HIVvaccineaware this #HVAD2021

Today, May 18th, is HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (HVAD), and advocates are calling for policies, science and advocacy for HIV vaccines that leverage the lessons of the past year.

This HVAD, we are focused on how the COVID experience can speed the development AND delivery of vaccines for HIV, TB, malaria and other diseases. Below you’ll find a roundup of resources, from AVAC and others, providing context, key messages and other information on what the field has learned from COVID-19, the essential role of vaccines in global health, and what’s next in the search for an HIV vaccine.

Vaccines & Global Health in Perspective

  • In a commentary today in Bhekisisa, Fatima Hassan of Health Justice Initiative and AVAC’s Mitchell Warren outline Finding an HIV vaccine: Five lessons from the response to COVID-19.
  • Episode 1 of the new podcast from the International AIDS Society (IAS), HIV Unmuted takes listeners to the global HIV change-makers who have shaped the response and asks what must happen now to end the AIDS epidemic. This debut episode features the NIH’s Anthony Fauci, AVAC’s Maureen Luba, Udom Likhitwonnawut from Thailand’s National Community Advisory Board, and others.
  • In their piece, How HIV Vaccine Advocacy Can Leverage Lessons from COVID-19, USAID’s Ashley Lima and Margaret McCluskey draw on the experiences and perspective of CASPR partners and their agenda for vaccine advocacy in the midst of COVID.

AVAC’s HVAD Package
Check out AVAC’s key messages for this HVAD. Designed for easy communication, this resource outlines the six ways that the COVID experience can shape HIV vaccine advocacy moving forward. For social media, we hope our sample tiles and tweets will inspire action to keep audiences #HIVvaccineaware this #HVAD2021. Download tiles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Get the basics with AVAC’s annually updated powerpoint tutorial on HIV vaccines; current and planned vaccine research with this table of clinical trials; and our infographics gallery allows you to search by prevention intervention. All of these resources and more are up at www.avac.org/hvad.

IAVI’s HVAD Resources
We encourage you to explore IAVI’s #HVAD2021 toolkit for the perspectives of scientists and community liaison teams, videos on the science and development of vaccines, and tiles and tweets supporting their HVAD campaign at #EyesOnTheTarget and more.

Updates from the Field

  • Earlier today, WACI Health and AfNHI hosted a webinar exploring the remarkable advances in HIV vaccine research and the promising concepts being studied today with Ntando Yola, of APHA-South Africa and the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, and Nyaradzo Mgodi, clinical pathologist from the University of Zimbabwe. Look for a recording of the webinar here, along with recordings of two additional webinars: one co-hosted by IAVI and KANCO featuring leading researchers and advocates in East Africa and one co-hosted by IAVI and SANAC featuring leaders in South Africa.
  • On May 13th, AVAC hosted a webinar HIV Vaccines in the Midst of COVID. In this recording you’ll hear researchers and advocates discussing new vaccine technologies, delivery challenges, community engagement, and confidence in both vaccines and vaccine research.
  • In the latest episode of AVAC’s Px Pulse podcast, Dive into the AMP Trials, we unpack the results of the recent Antibody-Mediated Prevention (AMP) studies, which will inform the fields of antibodies-for-prevention, and HIV vaccine research.

We can make #HVAD2021 the turning point, when the full potential of vaccines becomes undeniable, and the world renews its commitment to the search for vaccines for HIV, TB and other diseases that continue to threaten so many people’s health and well-being.

On this HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, leveraging the lessons of COVID to advance an HIV vaccine

This HIV Vaccine Awareness Day—observed each year on May 18—takes place in a new era of vaccine science. Accelerated by the knowledge, technologies, networks and community engagement models developed for HIV, the search for COVID-19 vaccines produced extraordinary results in record time. COVID demonstrated that a global sense of urgency to end a pandemic can produce ample research money overnight, help pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and nonprofits overcome previously insurmountable barriers to collaboration, and shrink vaccine development and testing timelines from decades to months. And yet, the results of those innovations are not translating quickly or equitably enough to end this pandemic. Advances in scientific R&D can’t have impact without equally robust investment in and commitment to delivery.

AVAC’s theme for HVAD 2021 is “HIV Vaccine Research: Building on Lessons from COVID”. We are focused on how the COVID experience can speed the development AND delivery of vaccines for HIV, TB, malaria and other diseases. Visit our dedicated HVAD 2021 page for resources to help make sense of this unique moment in vaccine history, and to build a global vaccine advocacy agenda for the future. There you’ll find:

The 2021 HVAD toolkit:

The page also has links to:

  • A recording of yesterday’s webinar, HIV Vaccines in the Midst of COVID, featuring HIV vaccine researchers and advocates Barney Graham (NIH Vaccine Research Center), Definate Nhamo (PZAT), Linda-Gail Bekker (Desmond Tutu Health Foundation), Matthew Rose (Health GAP) and Pontiano Kaleebu (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit), discussing new vaccine technologies, delivery challenges, community engagement, and confidence in both vaccines and vaccine research.
  • A new episode of our Px Pulse podcast, Dive into the AMP Trials, which helps explain the results of the recent Antibody-Mediated Prevention (AMP) study and what it could mean for HIV vaccines.
  • Clinical Trials Update – A table of past, current and planned vaccine trials.
  • Infographics gallery – Search by intervention—antibody-mediated prevention or HIV vaccine—for all the latest infographics.

The opportunities and challenges brought to light by COVID make this an HIV Vaccine Awareness Day like no other. This #HVAD2021, we must all become #HIVvaccineaware and ensure new vaccines get developed and delivered!

New Resources on AVAC.org and PrEPWatch

In this round-up of new AVAC resources you’ll find a wide range of new resources:

Understanding the Latest in HIV Prevention Research

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day is just around the corner—May 18th! In preparation, AVAC hosted a webinar, HIV Vaccines in the Midst of COVID, on Thursday, May 13.

An Advocates’ Primer on Long-Acting Injectable Cabotegravir for PrEP: In 2020, two large-scale efficacy trials, HPTN 083 & 084, found that a long-acting injectable form of cabotegravir as PrEP provided high levels of protection among people at risk of HIV. That’s truly exciting. There’s also a lot to learn and understand about next steps. What do the trial results explain, what still needs to be explored, and what do advocates think needs to happen next? Check out our primer for what’s known and what’s next for this emerging biomedical HIV prevention strategy.

A webinar: Long-Acting Injectable Cabotegravir for PrEP – Understanding the results and key areas for advocacy: AVAC’s May 3rd webinar on CAB-LA featured the researchers who led the studies on long-acting injectable PrEP, and advocates who are defining key issues for the introduction of CAB-LA.

Dive into the AMP Trials: In this episode of Px Pulse, AVACers Jeanne Baron and Daisy Ouya talk to leading bNAb researcher, IAVI’s Devin Sok; veteran HIV research advocate Mark Hubbard who served on AMP’s protocol team; and a senior member of the HVTN’s community engagement team, a chief explainer of the AMP trails, Gail Broder. Together they explore why these findings point to the need for combination antibodies, the need for a better understanding of the types of HIV that are circulating in a community, the complicated implications of a key lab test, the TZM-bl assay, and more.

Developments in the HIV Prevention Pipeline: PrEP, vaccines and more: Created by AVAC, EATG, PrEP in Europe, and PrEPster, this slide deck and recorded webinar offers community educators and advocates a concise summary of existing and future PrEP products, and a community-level perspective on strategic advocacy for PrEP access and uptake.

Watchdogging PEPFAR

PEPFAR Watch is a new online resource from a collaboration working to hold PEPFAR accountable to communities. The website features reports, news, and resources to support community-led monitoring, a core initiative for accountability in PEPFAR programs. You can also sign up to become members and gain access to webinars, PEPFAR quarterly data and more. The collaboration includes Health GAP, AVAC, TAG, the O’Neill Institute, MPact, the PLUS Coalition, amfAR, and CHANGE. It should be a one stop shop for all the information you need to monitor and influence PEPFAR Country Operational Plans. Find other supportive resources on AVAC’s page: Advocate for Access to High-Impact Prevention.

A Spotlight on Equity and Ethics

Make Your Voice Heard: Towards advancing racial equity & diversity in biomedical research: In response to a call from the NIH for proposals to advance racial equity, diversity, and inclusion within all facets of the biomedical research workforce, and expand research to eliminate or lessen health disparities and inequities, AVAC’s John Meade authored a blog on the major recommendations offered to the NIH from a coalition of 25 HIV research advocate organization.

How can research ethics committees help to strengthen stakeholder engagement in health research in South Africa? An evaluation of REC documents: This article, co-authored by our CASPR partners at South Africa’s HIV AIDS Vaccines Ethics Group (HAVEG) and AVAC’s Jess Salzwedel, and published in the South African Journal of Bioethics and Law, recommends research ethics committees (RECs) step up the focus on stakeholder engagement. Researchers working with REC’s should plan for robust stakeholder engagement and REC documentation should be harmonized to reflect this priority.

Advocacy for Vaccine Access

Breaking the Bottlenecks to COVID-19 Vaccine Access: Ensuring global access to COVID vaccines—and any health commodity—requires a multi-pronged effort to get the right policies in place. This new infographic identifies the multiple factors that contribute to bottlenecks in the global supply of #COVID19 vaccines and how to address them.

We hope these resources, which cut across issues facing the field, will empower your advocacy where change is both crucial and possible.

New Episode of Px Pulse! Dive into the AMP Trials

Findings from two trials on antibody-mediated prevention, the AMP Trials, have been generating discussion since the beginning of the year. The results are complex, and the implications for HIV prevention research are unfolding. The overall efficacy finding from these two Phase IIb studies was not protective. But when the broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) known as VRC01 was fighting strains of HIV that were highly sensitive to it, the antibody did provide partial protection. So what does that mean for the field, and what other questions have been raised by these pioneering trials?

In this episode of Px Pulse, AVACers Jeanne Baron and Daisy Ouya talk to leading bNAb researcher, IAVI’s Devin Sok; a veteran HIV research advocate Mark Hubbard who served on AMP’s protocol team; and a senior member of the HVTN’s community engagement team, a chief explainer of the AMP trials, Gail Broder. Together, we explore why these findings point to the need for combination antibodies, the need for a better understanding of the types of HIV that are circulating in a community, the complicated implications of a key lab test and more.

For more resources on these trials and antibody research for HIV prevention generally, AVAC has you covered. See AVAC’s dedicated page on the AMP trials, stay tuned for our forthcoming publication on “understanding the AMP results”, and for a broader context go to our page on antibody related research with access to our updated graphics on individual bNAbs and combinations.

Also, be sure to check out IAVI’s special report out today, The Future of antibody-based HIV Prevention, which analyzes the results and deepens the discussion with insights from experts across the field.

For the full podcast episode, highlights and more resources, visit avac.org/px-pulse. And subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts!

May 13 Webinar! HIV Vaccines in the Midst of COVID

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day is just around the corner—May 18th! In preparation, AVAC hosted a webinar, HIV Vaccines in the Midst of COVID, on Thursday, May 13.

Expert researchers and advocates discussed major issues and advances in HIV vaccine R&D and the impacts of COVID-19 on vaccine research and delivery. The conversation to explored the lessons learned to date and how they serve as a warning, a model, and a body of evidence on the need for accelerated vaccine development and comprehensive strategies for equitable global access.

The moderated panel discussion included Barney Graham of the NIH Vaccine Research Center, who helped develop the mRNA vaccine technology; Pontiano Kaleebu of the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit who helps lead the PrEPVacc trial; Linda-Gail Bekker of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation who is involved in cutting-edge HIV vaccine research and COVID vaccine delivery; and Matthew Rose of Health GAP and Definate Nhamo of PZAT who deal with the wide range of issues of confidence in vaccine research AND delivery.

We hope you’ll enjoy this rich conversation and prepare to make the most of your advocacy around HIV Vaccine Awareness Day on May 18. Click here for recording and slides.

AVAC will be offering additional tools in the days to come, including infographics, key messages, a social media toolkit and more. These resources will help you make the case that the fastest, but still-faltering vaccine effort in history has demonstrated both what can be done and what must be done better in the global response to pandemics. Keep an eye on this space for the latest!