Avac Event
June 12 to 14, 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and other ongoing conflicts in the world, have globally disrupted health services and affected treatment and psychosocial care of people living with HIV.
HIV prevention including HIV testing has also been negatively affected.
In order to ensure that HIV continues to feature on the worldwide agenda, focus and determination will be required.
The theme of the AIDSImpact 2023 is therefore. Power for Action Now!
The Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit, now in its seventh year, will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 11-12. This annual meeting focuses on biomedical interventions for treatment and prevention of HIV and approaches to implementation of these tools to end the epidemic.
This year’s theme highlights the role of sex and pleasure and includes a plenary featuring advocacy to right the wrongs of a failed US federal PrEP response with a US National PrEP Program.
AVAC and partners are involved in a number of sessions and activities; scroll down for information on these and click here to check out the full conference agenda.
And finally, be sure to follow our Twitter feed, @HIVpxresearch, Tuesday, April 11, when our Senior Program Manager for Policy, John Meade Jr., takes it over to report on the meeting live from Las Vegas.
AVAC and Partners at the Biomedical Prevention Summit
Tuesday, April 11:
10:30 to 12:00 PM PDT: No Data No More: A research scorecard for transgender inclusion
Session 1 Workshop
If we are to end the epidemic, we need biomedical research data that are representative of transgender communities. AVAC has designed a Scorecard tool with which to hold researchers accountable for the meaningful inclusion of transgender people in all HIV clinical trials. Join this session to learn how milestone HIV studies from 1991-the present have scored on transgender inclusion—and how you can ensure “No Data No More.”
4:30 to 6:00 PM EDT: Long-Acting Injectables: Revolutionary prevention drugs require revolutionary adaptations in delivery
Session 3 Workshop
Current delivery models for longer-acting injectable (LAI) PrEP require consumers to travel to outpatient settings and be seen by providers qualified to deliver injections. Yet, many providers serving HIV-impacted populations do not have sufficient capacity to offer LAI PrEP at the volume necessary to end the epidemic. Additionally, structural barriers and serious inequities within the United States healthcare system prevent many from engaging in HIV prevention. This workshop will explore how the HIV prevention community can draw lessons from other fields to successfully develop, advocate for, and implement alternative delivery models for LAI to increase access, and realize the promise of these revolutionary interventions.
4:30 to 6:00 PM PDT: PrEP in Black America: An equity movement in HIV prevention
Session 3 Workshop
Black people in the US bear a disproportionate burden of HIV, representing approximately 13 percent of the population while comprising more than 40 percent of incident HIV diagnoses in 2019. Despite this, biomedical HIV prevention tools remain underutilized by Black people and more than 90 percent of those who can benefit from PrEP have not been prescribed PrEP. The PrEP in Black America Summit (PIBA) was convened by a cadre of Black HIV activists, advocates, leaders, and public health professionals to address these frustrating factors on the 10th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first medication for biomedical HIV prevention. Summit leaders gathered more than 150 individuals, in person and virtual, in the spirit of confronting the historical injustices and race-based discrimination that continue to drive HIV and other sexual health inequities experienced by Black communities to develop a Black-focused agenda or “roadmap” for HIV prevention.
Wednesday, April 12:
10:30 to 12:00 PM PDT: CAB 4 PrEP: Opportunity for advancing equity and improving access
Session 4 Workshop
Injectable PrEP uptake in the US has the potential to reduce HIV infections, but only if its introduction can address the impediments to its implementation. Participants will engage with panelists that have experience with injectable cabotegravir in this workshop.
In its 16th annual report, the Resource Tracking for HIV Prevention Research & Development Working Group documents research and development spending for the calendar year 2020 and analyzes funding trends spanning twenty years.
Health leaders around the world are in the midst of creating a new architecture to deal with pandemics. In this episode of Px Pulse, Chris Collins, the CEO and President at Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, talks about what’s at stake, which policy-makers get it already, why this year matters so much, and what advocates can do about it.
Avac Event
April 6, 2023, 9:00AM Washington/2:00PM London/4:00PM Nairobi
Over the past two decades, HIV advocates have engaged in hard battles for equitable access to HIV/AIDS drugs and prevention options and have had some big wins. The process of these negotiations has led to strong relationships that have enshrined certain equity provisions as standard in clinical trials and manufacturing of HIV drugs. Through these battles, we’ve learned clear lessons on the necessity for such agreements and what’s required to secure them.
Throughout global PPPR agreements in 2023, governments and advocates in the Global South are asking for provisions on equity in the form of temporary IP waivers, mandatory tech transfer, and mandatory licensing for pandemic tools.
This panel will discuss lessons from the HIV epidemic and explore why governments of the Global South and advocates think we still need to address ‘the IP question’.
Featured Speakers: Fifa Rahman, Brook Baker, Fitsum Lakew, and moderated by Samantha Rick, AVAC
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.
