Eliminating TB by 2030—the timeframe set by United Nations member states—will not be possible without developing and introducing new TB vaccines. Decades of investments in TB vaccine research and development are starting to pay off — listen to the webinar recording to learn about the latest in TB vaccine research and discuss next steps based on recent results!

On Thursday, February 6, Treatment Action Group (TAG) and AVAC conducted a webinar featuring an update on recent vaccine results and possible next steps with M72/AS01E, one of several new TB vaccine candidates.

The TB vaccine field has been buzzing in 2020, with at least two Phase II trials reporting positive results in the past two years and several other trials either underway or close to finishing. Of particular interest, the positive finding in a Phase IIb trial of TB vaccine candidate M72/AS01E provided 50 percent protection against developing TB disease in HIV-negative adults with TB infection. The Phase IIb trial of this candidate vaccine was sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline (which developed it) and funded by GSK and Aeras (now IAVI).

This webinar featured Dereck Tait from IAVI who presented an overview of the M72/AS01E Phase IIb trial results, Johan Vekemans from the World Health Organization (WHO) who summarized a series of WHO-hosted consultations on the path forward for M72/AS01E’s development and possible licensure, and Penny Heaton from the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute (GMRI) who discussed the recently announced agreement on M72/AS01E between GSK and the GMRI.

Presentations by:

• Johan Vekemans | World Health Organization, Initiative for Vaccine Research, Geneva, Switzerland
• Dereck Tait | IAVI, TB Program, Cape Town, South Africa
• Penny Heaton | Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, Boston, United States

Q&A and discussion moderated by:

• Mike Frick | TAG, TB Project co-director
• Stacey Hannah | AVAC, Director of Research Engagement

Recording and Slides: YouTube / Mike Frick’s slides / Johan Vekemans’ slides

If you’re looking for other information, here are some useful resources:

• WHO’s Q&A on the investigational vaccine candidate M72/AS01E
• Final Analysis of a Trial of M72/AS01E Vaccine to Prevent Tuberculosis, published in the New England Journal of Medicine
• TAG’s 2019 TB Vaccine Pipeline Report

In early July, the world’s largest gathering on HIV/AIDS went virtual for the first time. AIDS 2020:Virtual, the 23rd edition of the International AIDS Conference, offered the latest scientific breakthroughs on HIV, opportunities for advocates to come together to sharpen their agenda and new to this year, a special day-long meeting devoted to COVID-19. Read on for our highlights of AIDS 2020 Virtual and be sure to check out our recent blog The View from AIDS 2020 Virtual – AVAC’s Take.

Program Highlights

• The Research Literacy Networking Zone (RLNZ) in the Global Village
• Ending the HIV Epidemic: Optimism, realism and disparities
• How did they do it? What successful communities can teach all of us about making dramatic progress against HIV epidemics and what this means in the age of COVID
• Bound But Not Gagged: Resilience in the era of the global gag rule

AVAC’s Research Literacy Zone

AVAC’s Research Literacy Zone (RLZN) featured resources on biomedical interventions, the clinical trial process, advocacy for the integration of sexual reproductive health with HIV prevention and treatment, and the impact of HIV and COVID-19 on each other. The RLZN also featured a series of virtual conversation and Q&As with leading researchers and advocates. Click to download the chat recordings below!

Research Literacy Networking Zone Pop-Up Chats

• A Conversation About HIV Cure Research
  
  Led by Thumbi N’dung’u, Africa Health Research Institute

• A Look at the Broadly Neutralizing Antibody Pipeline: What happens after AMP results?
  Led by Devin Sok & Olayinka Fagbayi, IAVI

• Do Africans Need COVID-19 Research? A Conversation with Advocates and Researchers
  Moderated by Ntando Yola, APHA & Nandsile Luthuli, AVAC
  Panelists: Dr. Kathy Mngadi, Aurum Institute, Dr. Sherman Padayachee, Setshabsa Research Centre, Xolani Mndaweni, Deputy Co-Chair of Klerksdrop CAB, Former Participant

• Advocates Reflect on the Latest UNAIDS Report: What does it mean for research and access?
  
  Moderated by Micheal Ighodaro, AVAC
  

• A Conversation About Long-Acting PrEP for Cisgender Women
  Led by Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, Wits RHI

• A Conversation About Long-Acting PrEP for MSM & Transgender Women
  Led by Raphael Landovitz, UCLA

• A Conversation with Advocates on Preparing for AMP Trial Results
  Led by Shelly Karuna, Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center

On Demand-Only Sessions

Symposia and Bridging Session, On-Demand Channel
Ending the HIV Epidemic: Optimism, realism and disparities. Listen to hear four perspectives on where we are and where we should go as we aim to end the HIV epidemic around the world. Speakers presented four distinct perspectives, each speaking across geographies and populations.

Symposia and Bridging Session, On-Demand Channel
How did they do it? What successful communities can teach all of us about making dramatic progress against HIV epidemics and what this means in the age of COVID. Cities, regions and countries around the world have brought down HIV incidence and mortality. How did they do it? Last year, amfAR, AVAC and Friends of the Global Fight, in partnership with Kaiser Family Foundation, released a report, Translating Progress Into Success to End the AIDS Epidemic, looking at success stories. In this session, advocates and researchers from these case studies discussed how to apply the lessons they learned to advocacy and policy.

Symposia and Bridging Session, On-Demand Channel
Bound But Not Gagged: Resilience in the era of the global gag rule. Listen to learn about the impact of the global gag rule and the domestic (US) gag rule on women and girls around the world, including key populations and how they have responded.

On-Demand Posters

• How policy affects practice: policy barriers to provision of HIV biomedical prevention services in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Transnational activism for an effective, comprehensive HIV response: Lessons from the coalition to mobilize power activism, strategy, solidarity (COMPASS) Africa
• Advocates’ perspectives on next-generation HIV prevention trial design
• Understanding ‘silenced health experiences’ of young people accessing HIV services through Body-Map Storytelling

An alliance of global key population-led networks, networks of people living with HIV, treatment activists, and our supporters, has formed to organize an alternative international community-led online event. Titled, HIV2020: Community Reclaiming the Global Response, the event is scheduled to take place on Zoom from July through October of 2020.

The HIV2020 alliance has decided to organize the community-led event to provide an alternative for individuals who cannot or will participate in the AIDS2020 virtual conference. Its goal is to offer new opportunities to reaffirm the leading role communities play in the global HIV response.

​

Against the recommendations of community advocates worldwide, including the national networks of people living with HIV in the US, the International AIDS Society (IAS) chose the US as the site for its International AIDS Conference in 2020. Their decision created a dilemma for many in the global HIV movement and reveals a willingness by mainstream HIV actors to tolerate the discrimination of people from Middle Eastern, African, Caribbean and Latin American countries, people who use drugs, sex workers, transgender people in US immigration and travel policies.

The decision also resurfaced questions about the importance and community-relevance of large, multi-million-dollar conferences in the face of shrinking investment in the global HIV response. The costs of medicines and other barriers to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services like stigma, discrimination, violence, and criminalization, continue to plague the HIV response worldwide.

Check out the programme calednar and register for the event.

As we watch COVID-19 spread across the globe, we see a virus that must be stopped. Drawing from decades of work on HIV, we know that confronting this novel virus demands the same data-driven, evidence-based advocacy that has been at the center of our work with all of you for 25 years.

There are still a lot of unknowns—and many myths circulating—but the scientific community is working to advance our understanding of COVID-19 and develop potential treatments and vaccines. Understandably, this new disease also raises many questions about the implications for HIV research and the global communities of people affected by HIV.

On Monday, March 23 we were joined by Dr. Carl Dieffenbach, Director of the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) at the NIH, Lillian Mworeko of ICW-EA and Yvette Raphael of APHA, to answer questions about what we do and don’t know about COVID-19 and HIV, how to track research developments on the HIV front, what this new pandemic might mean for ongoing HIV research, and how the HIV community can contribute to the fight against COVID-19.

The recording can be found here.

The HIV advocacy community has a unique role to play in countering myths, developing an advocacy agenda that brings solutions to the people who need it most, and demanding those solutions be data-driven, evidence-based and centered in human rights.

In the weeks and months ahead, we encourage you to sort the myths and facts on COVID-19 with these resources, and to keep watching this space to engage with crucial developments.

On Thursday, April 2, AVAC held it second webinar on COVID-19 and its relationship to HIV. Dr. Mark Feinberg, CEO of IAVI, shared experiences and lessons from Ebola and HIV vaccine development that might be applied to COVID-19 vaccine development. Dr. Feinberg was joined by Dr. Helen Rees of Wits RHI to discuss the history and role of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which supports vaccine development against emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

Listen

• Listen to the full recording (1:05:09)

Excerpts

• Mark Feinberg explores lessons from vaccine development in HIV and Ebola and relevance to COVID-19 (20:58)
• Helen Rees discusses the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations & the status of research for therapy for COVID-19 (11:48)
• Q&A: The science of partnership — A discussion about the vaccine development process and global coordination (6:41)
• Q&A: Why investment must be made now to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine at scale (8:50)
• Q&A: Helen Rees talks about the Solidarity study testing therapy for COVID-19 (5:11)
• Q&A: A discussion of mutation in the COVID-19 virus and how to sustain capacity to respond to epidemics (5:13)
• Q&A: Global health reframed, cooperation, openness & equity for both COVID-19 and HIV response (5:07)

Transcript

• Download the webinar transcript

On April 9, community engagement practitioners from Sub Saharan Africa discussed how COVID-19 is impacting ongoing clinical trials. While most clinical trials have paused enrollment to ensure participant and study teams safety and well-being. Most sites are continuing remotely with critical retention activities to uphold data integrity.

Professor Sinead Delany-Moretlwe of Wits RHI lead the discussion on how this pandemic is affecting clinical trials in Sub-Saharan Africa. She spoke on the implications COVID-19 has on data; the significance of each study visit and what happens when each visit is missed. Professor Delany-Moretlwe also presented an overview of some of the emerging COVID-19 related trials and their significance. During this webinar, various community engagement practitioners from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa discussed the potential implications on data integrity and study results of ongoing trials, preparation for continued retention activities with participants and the use of virtual engagement strategies in a global pandemic.

Listen to the recording here.

On Thursday, May 7, AVAC held a webinar, The Power–and Pitfalls–of Modeling for COVID-19 and HIV, to discuss current COVID-19 models, and the benefits and limitations of mathematical models as they apply to both COVID-19 and HIV prevention.

In the fourth installment of AVAC’s webinar series on COVID-19 and its relationship to HIV, John Stover, Vice President and founder of Avenir Health, discussed the current state of COVID-19 modeling. Mr. Stover was joined by his Avenir colleague Nadia Carvalho who discussed a new learning opportunity for advocates wishing to use modeling in their work. This online course was developed by Avenir as part of the Coalition to Accelerate & Support Prevention Research (CASPR) led by AVAC and supported by USAID.

Recording and Slides: YouTube / Avenir’s slides

The transcript of the Webinar Q&A can also be found here.

To learn more about modeling, check out this brief on Understanding COVID-19 Mathematical Models.