Avac Event

What do women want in multipurpose technologies?

Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (MPTs) are a fast-growing area in women’s sexual and reproductive health. On November 12, AVAC and CAMI Health co-hosted a webinar: MPT Acceptability in Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa.

Webinar Materials

The webinar summarzied methods and key findings from the market research study conducted by Ipsos Healthcare, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to assess the acceptability of multipurpose options among women in Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa.

The webinar discussed:

  • What women in Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa shared about sexual behavior, contraceptives and HIV prevention needs—and how this information will be used to shape the MPT agenda.
    What the research found about the acceptability of four potential MPTs (injectables, implants, intra-vaginal film, intra-vaginal ring).
  • Jeff Lucas and Moushira El-Sahn from Ipsos Healthcare summarized methods and key findings from the market research data, and Bethany Young-Holt from CAMI Health moderated the discussion.

This call was one of the latest updates in the MPT field. Here are some other resources of note:

Avac Event

Exploring the Pipeline: Lubes, Rings, Films, Fibers, and Shots 4 HIV Prevention

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.

Avac Event

Global launch of the G-FINDER 2014 Reproductive Health report

Report co-author, Dr Mary Moran, and international key commentators discussed the report’s findings and health funding decisions for the future. The first G-FINDER Reproductive Health survey reported 2013 global investment into research and development (R&D) for new reproductive health products for developing countries. It covered investment for post-partum haemorrhage, contraceptives, non-HIV STIs, multipurpose prevention technologies and platform technologies. The G-FINDER Reproductive Health survey is conducted by the independent research group Policy Cures and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For more information regarding G-FINDER and Policy Cures, visit www.policycures.org or contact [email protected].

Avac Event

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.

Definate Nhamo

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

Everlyne Ombati

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

PrEP That Booty: The latest on rectal microbicide research for the back door

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

Register here.

Avac Event

HIV Prevention Plus Plus: Developing Options that Meet the Full Range of our Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs

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

Register here.

This webinar is a part of The Choice Agenda.

Upcoming TCA Webinars On CROI And The Ring!

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:

the Choice Agenda logo

CROI and Community and YOU – Preparing for CROI 2023
Wednesday, September 7 at 10:00-11:00am ET; 2:00-3:00pm GMT

Register here.

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:

  • Dawn Averitt, Member of the Community Liaison Subcommittee
  • Dr. James Hoxie, Chair of the 2023 CROI Planning Committee
  • Drs. Diane Havlir, Vice-Chair of the 2023 CROI Planning Committee
  • Landon Myer, Vice-Chair of the 2023 CROI Planning Committee
  • Jim Pickett, Member of the Community Liaison Subcommittee
  • Ntando Yola, Member of the Community Liaison Subcommittee

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

Register here.

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:

  • Yvette Raphael, Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS, South Africa
  • Leonard Solai, IPM, South Africa
  • Erica Gollub, Pace University
  • Chris Obermeyer, The Global Fund

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].

New Issue of PxWire!

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.

phases in trial development

bar chart of PrEP uptake worldwide

preparing for new products dashboard

updates on products upstream in clinical trials