Special Interview with AVAC’s Micheal Ighodaro

This episode of Px Pulse, Special Interview with AVAC’s Micheal Ighodaro, goes behind the scenes of the new HBO movie, The Legend of the Underground. The film documents the lives of AVACer Micheal Ighodaro and other LGBTQ Nigerians as they confront enormous risks to ‘live out loud’. As the movie unfolds, individual stories of resilience are woven together into a tapestry that portrays a revolution for cultural change in Nigeria.

To End A Plague

This episode of Px Pulse takes a deep dive into PEPFAR, The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, looking at its pioneering successes and its challenges. In this episode, AVAC’s former Director of Strategy and Content, Emily Bass, discusses her new book, To End a Plague: America’s fight to end AIDS in Africa.

Dive into the AMP Trials

Results from the AMP Trials, studying a broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) known as VRC01, were complex, with still unfolding implications for the field.

The AMP Trials, two Phase IIb studies, tested the safety and efficacy of an infusion of VRC01 received every eight weeks. HVTN 703/HPTN 081 enrolled 1,900 women in sub-Saharan Africa, and HVTN 704/HPTN 085 enrolled 2,700 men who have sex with men and transgender people in North and South America and in Europe.

The overall efficacy demonstrated in the trials was not protective. But when VRC01 was fighting strains of HIV that were highly sensitive to it, the antibody did provide partial protection. So what does that mean for the field, and what other questions have been raised by these pioneering trials?

In this episode of Px Pulse, AVACers Jeanne Baron and Daisy Ouya talk to leading bNAb researcher, IAVI’s Devin Sok; a veteran HIV research advocate Mark Hubbard who served on AMP’s protocol team; and a senior member of the HVTN’s community engagement team, a chief explainer of the AMP trails, Gail Broder. Together we explore why these findings point to the need for combination antibodies, the need for a better understanding of the types of HIV that are circulating in a community, the complicated implications of a key lab test, the TZM-bl assay and more.

Hosted and produced by Jeanne Baron.

Highlights

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CAB-LA is a Highly Effective HIV Prevention Option; Now what?

Long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) is a promising new option for HIV prevention. In 2020, early results from two trials—HPTN 083 and HPTN 084—showed CAB-LA was safe and highly effective at preventing HIV when compared to daily oral TDF/FTC (Truvada) in men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender (TG) women and cisgender women. Now what? What questions remain unanswered and what support is needed now to make the growing range of prevention options feasible choices for people who may want and need them?

A Leap Forward For the Dapivirine Vaginal Ring, the Next Steps Are Critical

After decades of research and advocacy, the Dapivirine Vaginal Ring is now one step closer to becoming available as a discreet, woman-initiated HIV prevention option. In July, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a positive opinion for the ring, allowing the next steps in the regulatory process to go forward. Download this podcast to hear five different perspectives on the ring, how it expands HIV prevention options for women, and the most important next steps to bring the ring to women who need it.

Research Fundamentals: What is partial protection?

AVAC is launching a new series on our podcast Px Pulse—Research Fundamentals. In addition to our regular schedule of programs covering advances and challenges in HIV prevention research, Research Fundamentals we’ll explore scientific concepts in research, one at a time.

In our debut episode we explore the concept of partial protection, with:

  • David Evans, science and advocacy consultant for AVAC, formerly of Project Inform
  • Penny Moore from South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand and National Institute for Communicable Diseases
  • And Sandhya Vasan of the US Military HIV Research Program

Together we explore the meaning of partial protection. Whether it’s condoms, a flu shot, oral PrEP or the dapivirine vaginal ring, proven products fall short of 100 percent protection against disease, and there’s a lot to know about how and why an intervention may offer imperfect but still useful protection.

Listen

The Intersections of HIV and COVID-19 in Real-Time

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on across the world, the latest crisis is markedly reminiscent of the early days of HIV. And while the HIV epidemic is far from over, unrelenting activism, strong community engagement, partnerships and innovation are to thank for the strides the field has made towards controlling the epidemic.

Now, the response to COVID-19 is drawing heavily from these successes, and at the same time, forcing even more innovation on the HIV front.

In this episode of Px Pulse, we’ve compiled excerpts from two April webinars that offer unique perspectives on how COVID-19 and HIV are shaping one another. First, Mark Feinberg, CEO of IAVI, and Helen Rees, Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI), speak to COVID-19 vaccine development, and the role of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) in spurring vaccine funding and collaboration. We then turn to community engagement experts Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, Director of Research at Wits RHI, Vincent Basajja of the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Jau Nanyondo from Uganda’s Makerere University Walter Reed Project and Philister Adhiambo from the Kenya Medical Research Institute, who explain how HIV prevention trials are adapting in the wake of COVID-19.

Listen

HVTN 702 and the Quest for Vaccine

One of the most anticipated HIV vaccine efficacy trials in the field—HVTN 702, or Uhambo—stopped vaccinations early after a scheduled review showed the vaccine did not offer protection.

The trial team will continue to follow participants over the next year to monitor safety and answer urgent questions raised by the trial results. In this episode of Px Pulse, HVTN 702 Protocol Co-chair and AVAC Board Member Linda-Gail Bekker explores what the trial team hopes to learn during the follow-up period and how these answers might impact the ongoing pursuit for an HIV vaccine. AVAC’s Regional Stakeholder Engagement Advisor Nandisile Luthuli also joins the conversation to shed light on the trial team’s plans for continuing community engagement, and AVAC’s Director of Research Engagement, Stacey Hannah, talks about the successes of the trial.

2020 Global Targets for Prevention Will Not Be Met: Now What?

With unmet UNAIDS “Fast-Track” targets for ending the epidemic now a reality, the field faces the sobering truth that we’ve been striving towards the 90-90-90 treatment targets without the same enthusiasm, focus and commitment to primary prevention targets.

In this episode of Px Pulse, AVAC’s Emily Bass and lead author of our report Now What? talks about AVAC’s blueprint for course correcting—bold leadership, smart target-setting for HIV prevention research and implementation, and multilayered prevention programs that are centered around people. She explains why the epidemic needs a sustained response and how leaders from the highest level down to the grassroots can demand accountability and reject a “business as usual” approach.

What’s All the Fuss About F/TAF? A Trailer for Action in 2020

What’s all the fuss about F/TAF for oral PrEP? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug maker Gilead’s Descovy (also known as F/TAF) as daily oral PrEP in October 2019, with one notable caveat: the label excluded those who are at risk from “receptive vaginal sex”, indicating that more data is needed for the drug to be approved as HIV prevention for cisgender women. The FDA’s supplemental approval requires Gilead to conduct safety and efficacy trial in cisgender women on a timeline that aims for data by 2025.

In the aftermath of this approval, there are questions about the differences between these two forms of PrEP, what contribution F/TAF might make to the pipeline of prevention, and the vital role of stakeholder engagement as Gilead drafts the study protocol for a trial of F/TAF in women. We explore all this and more in this episode of Px Pulse.

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