Avac Event
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.
Definate is currently working on dapivirine ring planning and introduction under the PROMISE consortium, funded by USAID. She has also been a lead on projects to roll out PrEP in Zimbabwe. Previously, through her work on the Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe (SHAZ!) Project, Definate developed extensive experience working with orphaned and vulnerable adolescent girls and young women living on the streets. She won the Young Women Investigator’s prize at the 2013 International AIDS Society Conference in Malaysia for her abstract on adolescents and gender-based violence.
Fellowship Focus
Definate advocated for comprehensive HIV prevention options for young women and for their integration into sexual and reproductive health programs in Zimbabwe. She documented the perspectives of young women that she used to inform the consolidated national guidelines. She also worked with researchers and civil society members to prepare for microbicide trial results and accelerate regulatory considerations once results were released, as well as to influence the rollout of PrEP in Zimbabwe.
Definate’s Media Advocacy
Everlyn is the program coordinator for CBEC-KEMRI Bioethics Training Initiative (CKBTI), an NIH FIC funded bioethics training program established to create bioethics capacity in Kenya. She has extensive experience with biomedical research and regulatory issues through her work with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and has been involved in coordinating the process of reviewing and restructuring of the research regulatory system within KEMRI.
Fellowship Focus
Everlyn focused on advocacy for options designed to meet women’s multiple and diverse needs. She worked closely with Fellow Teresia Njoki to ensure that new HIV prevention options for women are part of the conversation in discussing Kenya’s future planning for prevention at the national and county levels. She built awareness around and prepared the ground for rollout of multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs). Once developed, these options will prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. She engaged three distinct levels of participants: community/end users, the research community/medical fraternity and regulators. Her project captured perceptions, knowledge and interest around MPTs in order to determine whether MPTs are a recognized need, explored what kind of products would be acceptable in Kenya and promoted awareness of MPTs. She also engaged regulators to discuss the ethical development of MPTs and the regulatory challenges faced in their introduction.
In Their Own Words
It is challenging to advocate for products like MPTs that aren’t available yet, so it’s important to be careful with the language we use to manage communities’ expectations. Also, these products must be introduced in a way that complements already existing products rather than one that alienates or stigmatizes them.
Everlyne’s Media Advocacy
• New Pregnancy HIV Prevention Tools On The Way
• Kenya: Deliver HIV Prevention Tools to Young Women
Materials
Poster – Raising awareness for microbicides and multipurpose prevention technologies in Kenya
Avac Event
Thursday, June 29 at 9:00 AM–10:30AM ET
Most of what we hear about regarding the HIV prevention pipeline is about long-acting, longer-acting, and even longer-acting products that deliver drug throughout the body and require a trained clinician to deliver. However, these attributes are not desirable to many folks, and communities want a range of choices. Researchers and advocates for years have been working on HIV prevention products specifically for the back door (rectum) to provide protection during anal intercourse. These products are user-controlled, non-systemic (the drug stays in the booty and only the booty), and are short-acting, so you don’t have to commit to having a prevention drug in your body for a year or longer. Join us for a dynamic discussion regarding the latest research on Booty PrEP – aka rectal microbicides – with our multi-talented panel.
Speakers include: Jonathan Baker, PA, Laser Surgery Care, Dr. Craig Hendrix, Johns Hopkins, Juan Michael Porter II, The Body, and Dr. Sharon Riddler, University of Pittsburgh
Avac Event
Tuesday, April 25 at 9:00 AM–10:30AM ET
Despite a dynamic research and development (R&D) pipeline for prevention products, male and female condoms remain the only multi-purpose prevention technologies (MPTs) currently available. Yet MPTs are an integral part of the HIV prevention advocacy agenda. For decades, advocates have pushed for products to be developed that simultaneously prevent HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and/or pregnancy.
With a growing number of PrEP options already, what will it take to bring a new MPT to market? A Dual Prevention Pill (DPP – https://www.prepwatch.org/products/dual-prevention-pill/) that prevents both HIV and pregnancy could be just two years away. Looking further upstream, there are over 25 other MPTs in the pipeline (https://www.prepwatch.org/research-pipeline/), including vaginal rings, which would follow in the footsteps of the dapivirine vaginal ring recommended by WHO and recently approved in several countries.
Within this fast-evolving HIV prevention landscape, work is already underway to build a platform to introduce the DPP, which could speed up the rollout of other MPTs. Join us to hear what we’ve learned so far on R&D, marketing, counseling and delivery for MPTs – and to discuss what we can do now to prepare prevention markets to include new MPT options.
Featured Speakers:
Ruth Akulu, ICWEA, AVAC fellow
Barbara Friedland, Population Council
Gregorio Millet, amfAR
Dr. Thesla Palanee-Phillips, Wits RHI
Danielle Resar, Clinton Health Access Initiative
Co-moderators: Wawira Nyagah, AVAC Kate Segal, AVAC
This webinar is a part of The Choice Agenda.
The Choice Agenda, a global forum for advocacy on the latest in HIV prevention, has two webinars coming up you won’t want to miss:
CROI and Community and YOU – Preparing for CROI 2023
Wednesday, September 7 at 10:00-11:00am ET; 2:00-3:00pm GMT
Join the conversation with co-chairs of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), as well as researchers, advocates, community educators and members of the Community Liaison Subcommittee. The discussion will touch on what to expect at CROI 2023, which features some of the most consequential research on HIV, monkeypox, SARS-CoV-2 and more. The webinar will also cover how to apply for a Community Scholarship, and key dates and deadlines for engaging with the conference. Remarks from:
RINGing the bell for Choice: Actions and Solutions on Dapivirine Ring Access
Thursday, September 22 at 9:00-10:30am ET; 1:00-2:30pm GMT
This webinar will offer the latest from African advocates leading efforts to demand access to the dapivirine vaginal ring. In recent weeks, advocates have been pressing PEPFAR and others to do more to deliver the ring to women who want it. The Population Council will also discuss their plans for moving forward a full agenda for ring technology, including rolling out the approved monthly PrEP Ring, and continuing research on a three-month ring and multipurpose technology. In July, the Population Council announced it had acquired the ring technologies from the International Partnership for Microbicides, the ring’s developer. Speakers include:
For previous webinars from The Choice Agenda, check out our archive here! And join more than 600 advocates on the TCA listserve by reaching out to Jim at [email protected].
PxWire is AVAC’s quarterly update covering the latest in the field of biomedical HIV prevention research and development, implementation and advocacy. Each issue includes news, emerging issues and features upcoming events.
The HIV field gathers for its first hybrid International AIDS Conference (IAC) since the start of COVID-19 pandemic at a pivotal moment in HIV prevention. Across research to rollout – accelerated product access, new products reaching the market, new trials starting (and pausing) and recent research results – the ability to deliver two new proven PrEP methods will be determined by conversations and decisions happening now.
After initial approval ten years ago, oral PrEP initiations have surpassed 2M globally, reaching 2,797,304 – with significant progress over the past year, but still well below UN targets.
Check out the full issue of PxWire here and scroll down for important updates.
Advocates are coming together from several fields to plan for the introduction of the Dual Prevention Pill (DPP). Currently in development, this daily pill would prevent both HIV and pregnancy. Once approved, the DPP would be an important new option in a menu of choices for contraception and HIV prevention, paving the way for additional multi-purpose prevention technologies (MPTs) in the pipeline. Advocacy to ensure these options become real choices will be essential.
In April, AVAC and FP2030 convened a consultation with family planning (FP) and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) stakeholders to understand their unique perspectives on the DPP. The consultation put a spotlight on key questions and issues that will inform planning for DPP introduction, the development and delivery of future MPTs and, hopefully, accelerate the integration of SRH and HIV prevention programs.
The consultation identified key issues including the need to:
Learn more with the resources below!
This report summarizes and reports next steps from an AVAC and FP2030 convened consultation with family planning (FP) and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) stakeholders. The aim of the consultation was to understand stakeholders’ unique perspectives on the Dual Prevention Pill (DPP), a daily oral pill that prevents HIV and pregnancy. The consultation helped to elevate questions and issues to consider as DPP introduction plans are refined and that can also inform the development and delivery of future multi-purpose prevention technologies (MPTs).
In this week’s roundup, you’ll find details on an upcoming webinar covering the stand-out science from CROI 2022; an important read on vaccine equity; new resources to support advocacy for the dapivirine vaginal ring; resources for learning about and advocating for the Dual Prevention Pill; and a special tribute to Zena Stein.
Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at 9:30am ET/15:00 SAST
Join us, the CROI Community Liaison Subcommittee, and European AIDS Treatment Group for a webinar to debrief on this year’s CROI. A fabulous panel will unpack findings from the conference, share perspectives, and offer advocacy suggestions. Topics will span science presented on HIV prevention and treatment, HIV and aging, HIV cure, and COVID-19. Register here. Recorded sessions from CROI 2022 are now available on demand. For context on the sessions, the recordings from the Margarita Breakfast Clubs explore findings from the research of the day at CROI.
An opinion piece in The Hill newspaper by AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren points out connections in global health that cut across disease and must be addressed for biomedical products to reach those who need them most. “COVID-19 has shown us the fragility of our efforts to end diseases in places where poverty is entrenched…. We invest hundreds of millions in large trials but nothing similar on how to disseminate the results…. This is not unique to any one disease: We have seen it in the lack of global vaccine equity in the COVID-19 response and we’ve seen it in TB and HIV…. We are achieving breakthroughs in developing new medicines and vaccines, but we are failing to deliver them with equity and with impact. It is well past time to do better.”
A video series, developed by the USAID-funded MOSAIC Project, features the voices of women from trials in Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe that tested the dapivirine vaginal ring. Trial participants explain why the ring works for them and their need for future access to this HIV prevention method.
Last week, AVAC and FP2030 held a consultation on the Dual Prevention Pill (DPP), a daily pill that is currently being developed for the simultaneous prevention of unintended pregnancy and HIV acquisition. The webinar brought in dynamic perspectives from the family planning and sexual & reproductive health communities. Be sure to keep this on your radar, as there will be more opportunities at AIDS2022 to learn more, get your questions answered and develop advocacy priorities for this promising multipurpose technology. Currently, the DPP is moving through the R&D process and could be available as early as 2024. It would be the first MPT available. Get more details on the DPP on PrEPWatch.org.
To reflect on the legacy of Zena Stein, a public health, human rights and HIV prevention champion who influenced so many working in HIV prevention, the editor of the American Journal of Public Health produced a video-podcast conversation with CAPRISA’s Quarraisha Abdool Karim and AVAC’s Mitchell Warren.