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.

Materials

Human-Centered Design and Prevention in the Real World

In this episode of Px Pulse, we hear from AVACer Anabel Gomez about the human-centered design project she’s leading with partners in South Africa to chart a path that will better support a journey to HIV prevention. We also hear from two members of the research team—Lesego Taule and Mpumi Mbethe—who helped lead these discussions in communities where HIV is epidemic. And a program implementer for HIV prevention in South Africa, Anthony Ambrose of NACOSA, tells us how this research can be applied to programs and how it changed the way he thinks about HIV risk.

The ECHO Trial Results: Time to Act

In this episode of Px Pulse. we take a look the results of the ECHO study and what they mean from several angles. Leaders of the trial, formally called Evidence for Contraceptive options in HIV Outcomes, announced study findings in mid-June. ECHO found no substantial difference in HIV acquisition among women using one of three highly effective contraceptive methods in the study: DMPA-IM, the copper IUD, the LNG implant).

The ECHO Trial: Preparing for action

In this episode of Px Pulse, AVAC spoke with two leaders from the ECHO trial team, Dr. Jared Baeten and Dr. Helen Rees, to understand what the trial can and cannot tell us. And you’ll hear leading women’s advocates from several countries where the ECHO trial took place share their demands. Carry what you learn forward as the ECHO trial raises the volume on an urgent conversation—how to empower African women around their sexual and reproductive health.

The Science of Choice: The future of HIV prevention research

This episode of Px Pulse features unmissable conversations about some of the challenges associated with today’s HIV prevention options, and analysis about what should be in the research pipeline from 2021 to 2027.

Community Engagement and HIV Prevention

In this episode of Px Pulse, we consider how future HIV prevention trials will need to be designed as HIV prevention evolves… and how to strengthen community engagement along with it. At the heart of the matter is that clinical trials for HIV prevention are set to get bigger and more complex, in response to advances in HIV prevention, such as PrEP.

AVAC Report 2018 & HIV R4P

In this episode of Px Pulse, Ntando Yola, a veteran advocate and part of the Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR) shares his advocacy priorities for R4P and beyond. But first, AVAC’s Emily Bass talks about the just-launched 2018 annual report from AVAC, this year titled No Prevention, No End!

Combination Prevention and AIDS 2018

In this episode, featuring Ambassador Deborah Birx, we take a look at one area of great importance that was center stage at the AIDS 2018 conference in Amsterdam: primary prevention.