Press Release

Report on HIV Prevention Research Funding Says New Investment Critical to Capitalize on HIV Prevention Research Breakthroughs

Rome – In the last year, promising trial results and critical scientific breakthroughs have changed the HIV prevention landscape, providing new opportunities for both a broader response to the epidemic with new prevention options and broader clinical and laboratory agendas with new research targets. At the same time, investment in biomedical HIV prevention research remained stable despite the effects of the recent global economic downturn, according to a new report released today in Rome at the 6th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention. 

Capitalizing on Scientific Progress: Investment in HIV Prevention R&D in 2010 is the seventh annual report from the HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group documenting investments in biomedical HIV prevention research from public, philanthropic and commercial sectors. This year’s report argues that capitalizing on recent promising scientific breakthroughs will require substantial additional and sustained investment from a broader set of donors.

The major, and surprising finding of the report, given the global funding environment, is that overall investment in HIV prevention R&D had actually increased, with the modest exception of a one percent decline in vaccine R&D. The report documented a total US$1.19 billion investment in research and development (R&D) for four key HIV prevention options: preventive vaccines, microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) using antiretroviral drugs, and operations research related to medical male circumcision. Even in the aftermath of a global recession, this investment approached the previous historical high of US$1.23 billion reached in 2007 for these four prevention technologies.

Yet to capitalize on the recent exciting prevention breakthroughs being discussed at the IAS conference, more investment will be needed across prevention technologies and from bench research to operational and implementation research.

“Certainly in this era of economic restraint it is good news that donors continue to see the value of investing in prevention research,” said Paul DeLay, Deputy Executive Director, Programme, UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. “But as we capitalize on the recent breakthroughs and move quickly to make new forms of prevention available to those who need them most, we need donors to also move quickly to ensure that funding shortfalls do not become roadblocks.”

There is an urgent need to direct resources to accelerate promise into progress. Yet the report recognized that funders continue to confront budgetary constraints, with some having reduced or eliminated their HIV prevention research programs altogether. Funding for HIV prevention research also remains highly concentrated among relatively few funders, and the Working Group warns that this narrow base of funding will threaten the sustainable research effort required at this critical time and highlights the need for broadening that base, importantly including emerging economies.

“The recent promising results of PrEP and treatment as prevention trials tell us that thirty years into the epidemic we may finally be on the path to ending AIDS,” said Mitchell Warren, AVAC executive director. “New prevention options—medical male circumcision, PrEP, microbicides and eventually vaccines—will play a critical role in reducing the cycle of new infections. As we look toward the next 30 years of AIDS, investment in prevention research has never been more important. Going forward we need funding structures that are flexible, agile, and generous enough to adapt rapidly to new opportunities.”

“We have seen tremendous progress in HIV prevention research over the last two years,” said Margaret McGlynn, President and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). “Sustaining the momentum built through these advances depends on access to stable funding that can be flexibly applied to the most promising areas of research. This will allow us to build upon the field’s successes and to move promising concepts from the pipeline into clinical trials as swiftly as possible.”

“The recent exciting results in the PrEP and microbicide fields are proof that investment in HIV prevention research is bringing women and men around the world much closer to having a broad range of effective HIV prevention options,” said Zeda Rosenberg, CEO of the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM). “Wise investments now in laboratory and clinical research, and in efforts to roll out new interventions will pay off as HIV infections decline significantly in the coming decades.”

The report is available online at: www.hivresourcetracking.org. 

Kay Marshall (AVAC), [email protected], +1-347-249-6375
Sophie Barton-Knott (UNAIDS), [email protected], +41 79 514 6896/
+41 22 791 1697
Lauren Wesolowski (IAVI), [email protected], +1-212-328-7420

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The Working Group is composed of AVAC, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

2010 AVAC Report: Turning the Page (Thai translation)

The AVAC 2010 Report, Turning the Page, highlights that the biomedical prevention field is entering the next chapter of its development. The past year brought the first evidence, from the Thai Prime-Boost trial, that an AIDS vaccine could prevent HIV in humans, as well as significant preclinical findings around potent, HIV-specific neutralizing antibodies.

At the same time, two microbicide trials testing the candidate PRO 2000 yielded seemingly different, but ultimately disappointing results, and the field now prepares for the release of results from CAPRISA 004, the first ARV-based microbicide effectiveness trial.

2003 AVAC Report: 4 Years and Counting: How do you Fight a Disease of Mass Destruction?

When America became frightened by the bio-terror threat, Congress and the Administration moved swiftly to put funding and incentives in place. That same kind of decisive action is needed to accelerate research and ensure an AIDS vaccine is available to all who need it. This Report looks at the bioterror model, and provides the results of our new industry survey.

2002 AVAC Report: 5 Years and Counting: Science, Urgency and Courage

Five years away from the date former President Bill Clinton set as a goal for finding an AIDS vaccine, there are more candidate vaccine products in development than ever before. No one knows if any of the current experimental vaccines will work. No one even knows what immune response a vaccine needs to elicit to prevent HIV disease. The only way to obtain answers is to ask tens of thousands of altruistic and courageous participants to participate in dozens of trials. The only way to obtain answers is to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to fund these trials.

2001 AVAC Report: 6 Years and Counting: Can a Shifting Landscape Accelerate an AIDS Vaccine?

In 1996, AVAC was the first organization to demand that development of an AIDS vaccine become a national goal. President Clinton set that goal in May 1997, calling for a successful vaccine by 2007. We are now six years away from the goal and counting. None of the challenges are insurmountable. The optimism that characterizes HIV vaccine research today should drive policy makers and researchers to grapple effectively with the issues that remain. An HIV vaccine is possible. The question is how soon we find it, and who gets it when we do.

2000 AVAC Report: 7 Years and Counting: How Can We Overcome Obstacles to an AIDS Vaccine?

The last year was one of great activity across US agencies and throughout the world. This Report documents the steadily increasing activity in the quest for a vaccine against HIV. We have also identified several actions necessary to accelerate development of HIV vaccines, and we outline all of this in the AVAC Report for 2000.

1999 AVAC Report: 8 Years and Counting: What Will Speed the Development of an AIDS Vaccine?

This Report urges government, industry, and community to dedicate themselves to the development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine. If the goal for 2007 cannot be achieved, then we need to know what will be accomplished over the next eight years toward a vaccine that could bring the HIV pandemic under control. With 16,000 new HIV infections each day, the world can afford no delay. This Report describes what each of these sectors has accomplished during the past year and outlines what each can do to speed the search for a preventive vaccine.

1998 AVAC Report: 9 Years and Counting: Will We Have an HIV Vaccine by 2007?

This report surveys the public- and private-sector efforts on HIV vaccine research and development in the past year, with a focus on the US government agencies and pharmaceutical companies that are most likely to make a difference. It finds that, despite an impressive array of dedicated researchers and increasing funding for HIV vaccines, the world will fall short of President Clinton’s deadline. US government research efforts are not focused on results, leaders err on the side of caution rather than on moving forward, responsibility is diffuse, and the nation has stood silent as pharmaceutical companies, including the world’s largest vaccine producer, make little or no investment in one of the greatest public health challenges of our century. AVAC addresses these obstacles and recommends an agenda for action in this report.