New report highlights that declining investment could slow research and rollout of new HIV prevention options

The HIV Vaccines & Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group (RTWG) released its annual report on the state of HIV prevention research funding.

Click here for a press release detailing key findings.

The report, HIV Prevention Research & Development Investment in 2013: In a changing global development, economic and human rights landscape, is the 10th annual update from the RTWG, which is led by AVAC in partnership with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and UNAIDS.

The Report tracks spending on HIV vaccines, microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), treatment as prevention, voluntary medical male circumcision, female condoms and prevention of vertical transmission. This year’s report also provides an update on investment in HIV cure, therapeutic vaccine, multipurpose prevention technology and HSV-2 research.

The RTWG has prepared a range of resources to help advocates understand and use the information it contains. One key finding is that there has been a decline in investment from 2012—advocacy is needed to ensure that support for research is sustained.

Specifically, the Report shows that investment in HIV prevention research fell 4 percent in 2013, due to a combination of factors including declining investments by the United States and European donors, changes in the international development landscape and changes in the pipeline of HIV prevention products being tested. In 2013, total investment in prevention research was US $1.26 billion, down US$50 million from 2012.

The full report, a one-page overview of the findings and downloadable graphics are all available at www.hivresourcetracking.org. You can also view previous years’ reports. As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.

Px Wire: Making sense of the AIDS Conference, updated PrEP guidelines and contraceptive research

This latest issue of Px Wire comes out on the eve of the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia—and we begin with “AVAC’s Take” on key messages and commitments to look for at and after the meeting. The bottom line: turn talk into action.

 This means building on the recent UNAIDS definition of what ending AIDS means and when it should happen, and it means getting specific about how to turn guidelines into public health programs for impact.

Click here to download.

As Px Wire went to press, the World Health Organization launched new comprehensive guidance for HIV prevention and treatment for key populations. This includes a strong recommendation for offering oral PrEP in programs for gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). This development drew headlines and has the potential to expand access to strategic prevention for individuals who need it most. But as we note in our “Data Dispatch”, there are still only two demonstration projects ongoing in Africa—one of the geographies where gay men and other MSM have high rates of HIV—usually in the context of low levels of services and human rights protections. Without a clear plan for a suite of projects that answer key questions about PrEP in MSM as well as other populations who can benefit from PrEP, the new WHO guidance will not have the impact it should.

Px Wire also provides an update on the proposed ECHO trial, which seeks to measure the impact of different family planning methods on women’s risk of HIV. Originally set to test four contraceptive methods, the most recent trial protocol has just three arms—a change that reflects challenges fundraising for this research.

Our centerspread, features our redesigned website—including searchable databases, an infographics galley and our new blog, P-Values.

AVAC Fellow Maureen Milanga pushes for increased funding for ARVs

With new guidelines in place calling for earlier access to antiretrovirals for HIV treatment, many more Kenyans are eligible for the drugs. Activists, including AVAC Fellow Maureen Milanga argue that the current budget for treatment falls short.

“The Government must expand its domestic funding this financial year to close the treatment gap and begin to end Kenya’s AIDS epidemic,” said Maureen Milanga arguing for more than doubling the current domestic financing for treatment.

Read more here.

AVAC Fellow Khanyisa Dunjwa advocates for safe male circumcision

AVAC Fellow Khanyisa Dunjwa continues to work with different stakeholders at the provincial and national levels in South Africa to get their heads around making traditional circumcision safe.

This press release describes her work with the South African National AIDS Council’s Civil Society Forum (SANAC-CSF) and the position paper they put forth.

She has also published a couple of mythbusting pieces on voluntary medical male circumcision, arguing for its importance as part of an effective HIV prevention strategy. See this piece in news24 and Business Day, two South African publications.

Tracking HIV prevention @ AIDS 2014

The 20th International AIDS Conference begins Sunday, July 20 in Melbourne, Australia. We built out a special AIDS 2014 webpage that will help prevention advocates navigate the conference on-site and online.

On the page you will find:

  • A roadmap highlighting HIV prevention and implementation-related sessions taking place during the conference—available as a PDF and an Excel spreadsheet, sortable by prevention option, organizer, date and more.
  • A list of sessions and events that AVAC and its program partners are participating in (including our Exhibit Hall Booth—visit us at #301!).
  • Information on conference hubs, which provide long-distance access to the conference proceedings via session webcasts on the AIDS 2014 website and YouTube.
  • Details on a range of ways to follow via social media, including the new “Live Coverage” program from FHI 360 and IAS, AVAC’s social media coverage, videos from Mark King of My Fabulous Disease and more.
  • Links to sign up for official daily update emails.

We look forward to seeing some of you in Melbourne and are keen to work with all of you in the days, weeks and months after the conference to move the field forward.

Improving Ethics in HIV Prevention Trials, Lessons from Thailand

Published June 20 in PLOS ONE, “Improving Ethical and Participatory Practice for Marginalized Populations in Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials: Lessons from Thailand” includes findings from a qualitative study on the conduct of HIV prevention research and the involvement of marginalized populations in Thailand. The Good Participatory Practice (GPP) Guidelines for Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials—which provide trial funders, sponsors and implementers with guidance on how to engage with all stakeholders in the design and conduct of biomedical HIV prevention trials—guided the research.

In the early 2000s, the well-documented stoppage of PrEP research in Cameroon and Cambodia helped catalyze action around documenting best practices for stakeholder engagement. And in 2007, the first draft of the Good Participatory Practice Guidelines for biomedical HIV prevention trials were published. In 2011 a revised edition, informed by community consultation and use, was released.

The research reported in PLOS ONE was undertaken to help inform how to prevent similar trial closures in the future. The article, authored by Dan Allman, Melissa Hope Ditmore and Karyn Kaplan—partners in AVAC’s GPP Initiative—focused on a few specific areas: standards of HIV prevention, informed consent and communication. And while the focus of the research was on the experience in Thailand, the results can inform practice in other areas of the world where research is planned or ongoing in marginalized populations.

Read more on the study and its results here.

For more on the guidelines and AVAC’s GPP Initiative click here.

From the Booty’s Point of View: Using perceptibility data to inform rectal microbicide development

Rectal microbicide development has made strides in recent years, but, as with vaginal microbicides, adherence remains a concern for product developers.

There are two “P” words we have always loved – pleasure and prevention.

Perceptibility is a new strategy for evaluating what products feel like and how they “behave” in the body (in the booty as well!), during insertion, everyday activities, and, of course, during sex. The hope is that, by understanding how product characteristics impact how they are felt and understood by potential users, we can better design products for pleasure and prevention.

Join IRMA, AVAC, and our expert presenter, the wonderful Kate Morrow, who will explain the third ‘P” word, perceptibility. Kate will tell us why it is so crucial to both pleasure and HIV prevention, how the perceptibility process works, and how it will help create rectal microbicide products that people actually want to put in their booties, products that will inspire people to wait in line to get them…

July 17, 10am ET
Register here.

Click here to determine the time in your location and you will be able to download Kate’s slides in advance of the webinar by visiting IRMA’s website.

The webinar will be recorded, and an audio and flash version will be made available to everyone after the webinar. Many thanks to AVAC for helping IRMA host this call.

amfAR announces $3 Million for implementation science research: Request for proposals

Goal: To support implementation science research projects evaluating innovative service delivery models and community partnerships focused on the HIV treatment cascade for gay men, other men who have sex with men, and transgender individuals in low- and middle-income countries. E-mail questions about the RFP to [email protected]. Application Deadline: 9 July 2014 http: Click here to learn more: www.amfar.org/Implementation-Science-Research-RFP/

Funding opportunity: Integrated preclinical/clinical program for HIV topical microbicides and biomedical prevention (RFA-AI-14-025)

Goal: An integrated, iterative multidisciplinary application for developing a microbicide, PreExposure Prophylaxis/PrEP), or Multipurpose Prevention Technology/MPT non-vaccine biomedical prevention (nBP) product or strategy, for use in the male and/or female genital and gastrointestinal tracts to prevent HIV acquisition/transmission. Products/strategies may be delivered by various drug delivery systems, including gels, films, quick dissolving tablets, intravaginal rings, implants, oral, and/or injection.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to solicit applications from single institutions and consortia of institutions to participate in the Integrated Preclinical Clinical Program for HIV Topical Microbicides and Biomedical Prevention (IPCP-MBP).  The objective of each IPCP-MBP application is to create an integrated and iterative multi-disciplinary application with the goal of developing a microbicide, PreExposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), or Multipurpose Prevention Technology (MPT) non-vaccine biomedical prevention (nBP) product or strategy, for use in the male and/or female genital and gastrointestinal (GI) tracts to prevent HIV acquisition/transmission. Products and strategies may be delivered by a variety of drug delivery systems (DDS), including gels, films, quick dissolving tablets, intravaginal rings (IVR), implants, oral, and/or injection. This FOA contains significant modifications to previous iterations of the Integrated Preclinical Clinical Program FOA. – See more at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AI-14-025.html#sthash.6hsz7O1E.dpuf

USAID funding opportunity: Annual program statement (APS) for microbicide research, development, and introduction, round 3

This APS will supports the creative research and other innovative activities now essential to advance potential microbicides toward regulatory approval and then successfully introduce them into delivery programs. Additional detail and information on application submission can be found at http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html and searching for Funding Opportunity Number APS-OAA-14-000076. Questions can be sent to Petrina Williams, Agreement Specialist, at [email protected] and Sallie MacElrath, Agreement Officer, at [email protected] by COB June 19, 2014.