AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s Jim Pickett and Jessica Terlikowski, presented Project Ready, Set, PrEP Plus (RSP+), a webinar on the research and development pipeline of new HIV prevention tools. New forms of PrEP were discussed – from lubricants and gels to injections, films, fibers, rectal douches and rings.
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Exploring the Pipeline: Lubes, Rings, Films, Fibers, and Shots 4 HIV Prevention
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EATG Webinar 3: Microbicides and Vaccines
This series of three webinars, hosted jointly by EATG and AVAC, was designed to prepare and update EATG members for a special meeting on new developments in prevention that took place from January 23-25 in Brussels.
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MTN 2015 Annual Meeting
The MTN 2015 Annual Meeting was held at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center; 5701 Marinelli Road, North Bethesda, MD 20852. The meeting dates were from March 13, 2015 through March 18, 2015.
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MTN-017: Evolution and Implementation
IRMA, AVAC and the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) provided an update on the Phase II safety and acceptability study MTN 017 (now closed to accrual) and looked at potential future directions for rectal microbicide research. MTN’s Dr. Ross Cranston, Protocol Chair for MTN-017, walked participants through the evolution and implementation of 017 – the world’s first-ever Phase II rectal microbicide trial. Next, Dr. Ian McGowan, Co-Principal Investigator of the MTN discussed ideas and directions for what the rectal future may hold in terms of advanced stage trial design and planning.
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Women and HIV Prevention Research: Designing, testing and marketing products to improve adherence
The fourth webinar in AVAC’s Research & Reality series, a year-long dialogue about prevention research and advocacy, this call provided a forum to learn about and discuss key issues around women and the HIV prevention agenda, including challenges around marketing of and adherence to new prevention options.
View the full webinar here.
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Are Rectal Douches Ripe for Further Rectal Microbicide Exploration?
Rectal douching is a relatively common behavior across the world. So, should we be thinking seriously about developing a rectal microbicide as a douche? What do we know about rectal douching behavior globally? What are some of the most popular products used and by whom? What are the implications for rectal microbicide research and development? What are the gaps in rectal douche science?
Presenters Marjan Javanbakht and Jerome Galea engaged our participants on each of these questions and discussed recent research.
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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.
In this presention, Kate Morrow explained the third “P” word, perceptibility. She told us why it is so crucial to both pleasure and HIV prevention, how the perceptibility process works, and how it helps create rectal microbicide products that people actually want to use.
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VOICE – What are the implications for rectal microbicide research?
Jeanne Marrazzo (VOICE protocol co-chair) and Ian McGowan (co-principal investigator of the Microbicide Trials Network) discussed the VOICE results and what they mean for the rectal microbicide field moving forward. This call was presented through a collaboration between IRMA and AVAC.
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NAM-AVAC Microbicides Webinar
This 90-minute webinar examined the current state of research into topical microbicides – gels, lubes and devices that can be used to prevent HIV transmission during sex. It provided advocates with an overview of global and European topical microbicide research. The presentations were followed by a question and answer session with our expert speakers.
The discussion was moderated by Gus Cairns. He is a writer at NAM, where he edits HIV treatment update and Preventing HIV. He also edits the HIV prevention news: Europe bulletin as part of NAM’s programme of European prevention advocacy. He is a member of the European AIDS Treatment Group, co-chair of the Steering Committee of the PROUD PrEP trial, and a member of the steering committee of the Global Forum for MSM and HIV.
Presenters:
- Dr Sheena McCormack – Overview of topical microbicide research.
McCormack is Senior Clinical Scientist at the Clinical Trials Unit of the UK Medical Research Council. She is Principal Investigator of the Microbicides Development Programme, which ran the MDP 301 Phase III microbicide trial in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and of the recently started PROUD trial of Truvada pre-exposure prophylaxis in UK gay men.
- Dr Charles Kelly – News from the CHAARM microbicides research consortium
Kelly, of King’s College London, is co-ordinator of the Combined Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Microbicides (CHAARM) programme, a collaborative project co-funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Technological Development. CHAARM is a consortium of 31 partners representing 9 different countries in Europe including Ukraine, as well as South Africa and the US, with a €12m budget.
- Jeremy Nuttall – Update on IPM’s pipeline: the dapivirine ring and beyond
Nuttall is the Senior Director of Preclinical Sciences and Product Development for the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), where he is responsible for the preclinical testing of candidate microbicides and has broader product development responsibilities. Jeremy joined IPM in 2003 and has over 25 years of experience in drug development. Prior to IPM he worked as a toxicologist in contract research organisations and spent over 8 years in regulatory affairs at GlaxoSmithKline.
- Harriet Langanke – Community advocacy for microbicides in Europe
Langanke is founder and director of GSSG: Gemeinnützige Stiftung Sexualität und Gesundheit, the German Foundation on sexuality and health. She is a journalist who has worked in the field of HIV and sexual health since 1991; she is also one of the co-founders of Germany’s national network Women and AIDS which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. As an expert for HIV and STI prevention she works primarily for and with women.
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HIV Prevention Europe Webinars: Rectal microbicides
The seventh webinar in our series addressing a range of topics in HIV prevention research, hosted jointly by NAM and AVAC, will focus on rectal microbicides. The presentation was followed by a Q&A session.