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IAS 2019

The IAS 2019 conference is a biennial gathering for those working in the field of HIV, including policy makers, persons living with HIV and other individuals committed to ending the epidemic, was held in Mexico City, Mexico. It featured some of the most critical advances in basic, clinical and operational research that moves science into policy and practice.

Dispatches from Mexico City

AVAC offered comments and updates on Twitter and Facebook. Search the conference hashtag — #IAS2019 to find more conference related posts.

HIV Prevention Roadmap

The IAS 2019 Conference included hundreds of sessions, pre-conferences, and meetings—many focused on HIV prevention research and implementation. We had an Excel version, sortable by focus, and a PDF version.

AVAC and Partners at IAS 2019

Press Conference:

Data from six locations inform the future of the HIV response

Satellite Sessions:

“Sticky linkage”: Latest evidence and new strategies

Hormonal Contraception and HIV Risk: Understanding the ECHO trials results, and what’s next for women, providers, policies, and programs

Symposia Sessions:

We’re engaged! Strategies for enhancing community-researcher relationships

  • Community mobilization, effective involvement and ownership in HIV prevention research. Download the slides.

HIV testing and management in the era of PrEP

  • Considerations for community messaging about HIV testing in the context of PrEP. Download the slides.

Oral Abstract Sessions:

Research by and for whom? Community engagement in research

  • Bringing good participatory practice into action: Considerations and challenges from a sponsor perspective. Download the slides.
  • Getting from Good Participatory Practice to Good Trial Outcomes for Everyone: how stakeholders believe GPP works (or not). Download the slides.

Prevention is more than PrEP

  • Condom and oral PrEP use among female sex workers: Findings from a study in South Africa. Download the slides.
  • Improving prevention choice while we wait for an HIV vaccine: Prioritizing resources for key population-specific prevention research and implementation. Download the slides.

Posters:

  • Innovative demand creation changes in rolling out oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Kenya – the Jilinde experience. Download the poster.
  • Tracking Oral PrEP Access Globally: Using Initiation Trend Data to Inform Product Introduction. Download the poster.
  • The Global PrEP Research Landscape: Mapping studies of oral PrEP implementation and impact. Download the poster.
  • HIV prevention decisions by at-risk young women in South Africa: Proposing a novel Integrated behavioral journey framework using a mixed methods research approach.
    Download the poster.
  • What we know and don’t know about adolescent girls and young women and HIV Prevention in sub-Saharan Africa: Analysis of insights across completed, ongoing and planned projects. Download the poster.

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ICASA 2019

The 20th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA 2019) was December 2-7 in Kigali, Rwanda. Find details below on select events of interest. AVAC will be there along with many of our partners and participated in sessions both before and during the conference.

Table of Contents

ICASA 2019 HIV Prevention Research Roadmap

Amidst a wide range of topics that will be covered at the conference (full program available here), we have pulled together a roadmap of select sessions that may be of interest to those tracking biomedical prevention research and rollout. And on arrival, be sure to check out the various Networking Zone schedules in the Community Village for more great programming on prevention and more!

Download as a PDF or XLS file and please let us know of any other related events that should be added to the roadmap.

Pre-conferences:

Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum Pre-Conference
Monday, December 2, 9:00 – 17:00 at the Kigali Marriott Hotel. Register here.

The Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum (BHPF)—co-organized by AfNHi (the network of HIV prevention research advocates in Africa) and the New HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Advocacy Society (NHVMAS)—puts HIV prevention research on the spotlight by providing a unique platform where participants gather to learn about progress made and best practices in biomedical HIV prevention research and development. The forum is a space for participants to share HIV prevention research related perspectives and experiences.

Satellite and Special Sessions:

PEPFAR Watch
Tuesday, December 3, 8:00 – 11:00. RSVP here.

Does your country receive PEPFAR funding? PEPFAR’s annual planning process for 2020 is starting now. Join for a skills-building workshop—organized by Health GAP and partners—to find out how to monitor and influence PEPFAR via updates on how activists can ensure money is aligned with community priorities; share experiences and best practices to increase accountability and share tools for organizing and data analysis.

Why Do Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Costs Differ So Much: Methods or Setting?
Tuesday, December 3, 10:45 – 12:15 in room Jeanne Gapiya (MH4). Register at prep-costing.eventbrite.com.

This satellite session— co-hosted by the OPTIONS Consortium and Jilinde—will review why cost estimates and cost effectiveness of PrEP can vary so widely within and across programs, countries, and methodological approaches. Hear from a variety of programs and perspectives to identify key drivers of costs and how to make sense of estimates for use in modelling and programming.

Laying the Foundation for an HIV Cure in Africa
Tuesday, December 3, 18:30 – 20:30 in room Joel Nana (AD10).

This satellite session— organized in partnership with the International AIDS Society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Sunnylands, Georgetown University, AVAC, and the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE)—aims to strengthen engagement and support in the search for an HIV cure and allow delegates to offer important insights on optimizing a future/potential HIV cure.

20 Years After Abuja, What Next?
Wednesday, December 4, 10:45 – 12:15 in room Prof. Madeleine Okome (MH 3)

This special session—organized by the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA)—on the Abuja Declaration is a platform to evaluate the impact of various declarations on domestic funding and their implementation in Africa. The Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA) with a group of African and global HIV advocates including AVAC, has developed an African HIV Financing Scorecard in partnership with Accountability International as a means to analyse the existing funding, interrogate the gaps in required funding, and provides evidence-based advocacy messaging for action by the various stakeholders involved. The report will be released during this session and includes recommendations for an African advocacy campaign in the context of broader campaign to increase domestic funding for HIV programming.

Posters:

Tuesday, December 3

  • Social and Attitudinal Factors Affecting Art Initiation among Young Men Diagnosed with HIV in Mpumalanga and Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
  • Barriers to HIV Testing and Linkage among Young Men in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: A Market Segmentation Approach to Differentiated Service Delivery
  • Factors Influencing Gender Integration in Planning, Implementing and Documenting HIV Prevention Research in Eastern and Southern Africa

Thursday, December 5

  • Young Women’s Engagement in Student Leadership Structures – Lessons Learned in SAYWHAT
  • Understanding HIV prevention from the perspective of adolescent girls and young women: A mixed methods study in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, South Africa
  • Progress of African-led Advocacy for HIV Prevention Research
  • A growing civil society advocacy movement hastens the pace of HIV prevention from development through to delivery

Friday, December 6

  • Every Woman Matters: How the Voices of Women Influenced Discussions around Hormonal Contraceptives and Risk of HIV Acquisition
  • Strengthening Collaborative Partnerships: Role and Impact of Research Partners in Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Key Populations in Kenya
  • Drivers of and Barriers to Interest in PrEP among Young Men in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

ICASA on Social Media:

Follow the conference in real-time on social media by following us on Twitter and Facebook—and using the official conference hashtag #ICASA2019.

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World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day takes place on 1 December every year. It’s an opportunity for everyone to support people living with HIV/AIDS, commemorate those we have lost, take stock of the tireless work being done worldwide and re-energize advocacy efforts to end the epidemic.

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Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit

The fourth annual Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit was held 3-4 December 2019 at the Marriott Marquis in Houston, Texas. NMAC believes we must highlight the role that biomedical prevention tools such as PrEP, PEP, Treatment as Prevention (TasP), and U=U have in ending the epidemic.

The conference’s logo represents a collaboration between community-based organizations (CBOs), health departments (HDs), and national organizations. Low uptake of PrEP among communities of color presents us with serious challenges regarding the populations that will not have the advantage of the protection offered by PrEP. This meeting brings together HIV leaders to discuss, learn, and share biomedical HIV prevention interventions.

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2019 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA)

The 2019 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) is returning to Washington, DC on September 5-8 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. This year the focus will be on the plan to end the HIV epidemic in America. The conference will be an opportunity for health departments, community-based organizations, People Living with HIV, People on PrEP, national organizations, health centers, health care providers, donors, activists, and federal leaders to come together to discuss implementation.

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2020 AVAC Fellows Global Info Session

On August 22 the Fellows team held the 2020 AVAC Fellows Global Info Session. AVAC’s Advocacy Fellows Program launched in 2009 to expand the capacity of advocates and organizations to accelerate, shape and monitor biomedical HIV prevention research and implementation worldwide. Since the start, seventy Fellows have moved through the program in its first 10 years, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in the HIV movement in their communities, countries and globally. This global informational call was for prospective applicants to learn more about the program and ask questions directly to current Fellows, Alumni, Supervisors and the AVAC team. You can learn more about the application process here and download the application materials here.

Find the recording here and slides here.

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Webinar: Advocates’ Debrief on the Science of Daily F/TAF vs. TDF/FTC as PrEP

on Monday, October 7 at 9-10am ET, AVAC, the Treatment Action Group (TAG), The Well Project and the Women’s Research Initiative (WRI) co-convened the webinar Advocates’ Debrief on the Science of Daily F/TAF vs. TDF/FTC as PrEP.

This webinar was the first in a two-part series, responding to advocates’ desire to better understand the research to date on F/TAF as PrEP, especially as it relates to its safety profile [compared to TDF/FTC] and the lack of robust data in cisgender women. This issue came into greater focus during an August 7 FDA advisory committee meeting at which Gilead’s regulatory submission of F/TAF for PrEP was discussed and debated.

On the webinar, AVAC, TAG, The Well Project and WRI representatives were joined by researchers Andrew Hill (Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Pharmacology Department at Liverpool University) and Monica Gandhi (Professor of Medicine and Associate Division Chief of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital). They shared their take on the latest research, contextualized the August 7 discussion, and helped to inform an advocacy agenda for next steps.

For background, check out AVAC’s blog for a recap of the advisory committee proceedings, as well as TAG and PrEP4All’s joint comment to the FDA.

Recording and Slides: YouTube / Andrew Hill’s slides / Monica Gandhi’s slides

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Improving Access to Innovative HIV Technology

Two things need to happen to achieve greater success in the global fight against HIV: dramatically reduce new infections and achieve viral suppression in those already living with the virus. In order to meet these goals, new infections must come down from an annual rate of 1.7-2 million that has been stagnant for a decade, viral suppression must be sustained and ensured for the more than 23 million people living with HIV (PLHIV) on anti-retroviral treatment (ART), and treatment must be provided to the more than 14 million PLHIV not on ART.

New technology offers the potential to facilitate these efforts if they can be utilized effectively. The July 2019 International AIDS Society science conference in Mexico City highlighted several important technological innovations either already on the market or that will be available in the coming years including long-acting injectable treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), implants, and broadly neutralizing antibodies as a vaccine. However, the ongoing experience of starting oral PrEP programs has demonstrated that taking new products to scale for impact is complex and that there are significant obstacles to ensuring access to those in need.

On Tuesday, October 22nd, 2:30-5:00 pm, the CSIS Global Health Policy Center hosted a public event to explore recent developments in HIV prevention and treatment technology, examine successes and challenges in integrating those products into existing service delivery, and discuss how global programs, such as PEPFAR and the Global Fund, need to adapt to ensure access and uptake.

Fireside Chat

Moderated by:
J. Stephen Morrison – Senior Vice President and Director, CSIS Global Health Policy Center

Panel Discussion

  • Ambassador Deborah L. Birx – Coordinator of the United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, PEPFAR
  • Charles Lyons – President and CEO, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
  • Mitchell Warren – Executive Director, AVAC

Moderated by:
Sara M. Allinder – Executive Director and Senior Fellow, CSIS Global Health Policy Center

Watch a recording of the event here.

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It’s Complicated: Implementation questions regarding price, programming and policies for Descovy as PrEP

Advocates, policy makers, funders and other stakeholders have surfaced a number of questions regarding Descovy (F/TAF) for PrEP – recently approved by the FDA to prevent HIV during anal sex. With Truvada (TDF/FTC) set to go off patent next year, several generic options waiting in the wings, and our community’s reliance on the 340B program for funding PrEP-related services, many have raised concerns about price, policy and programming related to Descovy. Added to the complicated mix of issues are the presence of numerous lawsuits calling into question the safety of Truvada for both treatment and prevention and different PrEP indications for Descovy and Truvada, including different safety profiles. On Monday, November 11, an array of experts helped us sift through the questions – none of which have easy answers, all of which have significant implications for PrEP implementation in the United States.

Moderator:

Speakers:

  • Amy Killelea, Senior Director, Health Systems & Policy – National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD)
  • Tim Horn, Director, Medication Access and Pricing – NASTAD
  • David Hardy, Immediate-Past Chair, HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  • Craig Hendrix, Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology, and Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Recording and Slides: YouTube / David Hardy and Craig Hendrix’s Slides / Amy Killelea and Tim Horn’s Slides

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Trial Design Takes a Step in the Post PrEP Era: What will Gilead’s study of F/TAF among cisgender women tell us about next gen PrEP and next gen trial design

The FDA’s October approval excluded F/TAF as PrEP “for those who have receptive vaginal sex.” Many voices have expressed outrage that Gilead’s strategy for F/TAF regulatory approval left women by the wayside. Gilead had previously claimed finding a relevant cohort of women would not be feasible. Gilead is designing a novel trial, planned to begin in Africa in 2020, to gather missing data about the safety and efficacy of F/TAF among cisgender women. What are the implications of this trial? On Wednesday, November 13, the FDA’s Jeff Murray presented how an innovative design will enable a relatively smaller trial, and the questions it raises.

Recording and Slides: YouTube / Jeff Murray’s Slides