↪ Click for IAS 2025 resources and for our updates from the conference
The IAS 2025 conference in Kigali will go down as a critical turning point in the history of the HIV response. Every session, every meeting, every presentation played out against an existential threat: will the world find the courage and political will to end the HIV epidemic, with tremendous advances in technology underway, or will the momentum seen through 2024 collapse as evidence-based interventions fall way to ideology?
Leaders across the field are persevering to push forward the science, policies, programs and partnerships that are essential to achieve impact; and they are calling for solidarity. Advocates are leading the way, cutting a path and demanding equity, human rights and community leadership. WACI Health’s Rosemary Mburu captured this call to action at the opening session, saying “Community action is not the soft side of science — it’s what gives science its soul, its reach, and its relevance.”
New research on the HIV prevention pipeline is expected to be shared alongside evidence on how the dismantling of foreign aid and the retreat from US commitments to science and global health are impacting lives and livelihoods. Every aspect of the HIV response is under attack — from basic research and clinical development to policy, programs, and global access to life-saving treatment and prevention.
See AVAC’s new report, which lays out what’s needed at this critical time to get HIV prevention into the hands of those that need it most, and join us Monday, July 14 for a satellite session, Re-imagining prevention: Ensuring sustainable PrEP access in an evolving funding context.
IAS 2025 Resources
Use AVAC’s Roadmap to find sessions where prevention and the larger issues of global health equity and sustainability are in the spotlight. You can download it as a sortable spreadsheet or PDF.
AVAC Updates from the Conference
- Day 1 at IAS 2025: Funding cliffs, epidemic-ending possibilities, and essential advocacy
- Additional IAS highlights in Global Health Watch
- From Kigali: At IAS 2025, the HIV response rallies to face the crises
AVAC Conference Presentations
- Integration 2025: Where are we with sexual & reproductive health and HIV
- Re-imagining Prevention: Planning for sustainable PrEP access in the new funding context
- HIV Research on Pause: Impacts of US government cuts on HIV R&D, especially on HIV cure research
- No Retreat, No Surrender: Sustaining the HIV response in times of turmoil
- Designing for the Future: Community perspectives for HIV prevention trials
- Policy Shifts Needed to Enable PrEP Private Sector Delivery: Harnessing private sector strategies to expand access to PrEP
- How Have Policies Influenced PrEP Uptake: An analysis of PrEP data in 139 countries
Satellites, Sessions and Panels featuring AVAC and Partners
(All times listed are local in Kigali, Rwanda. See the time zone converter here.)
Sunday, July 13
- Expanding PrEP Access: The Role of HIVST in Uptake and Scale-Up – HIV Self-Testing impact on HIV diagnosis and treatment, Preconference, 09:00 – 17:45
- Building resilience: Strengthening national leadership, integration, and sustainable HIV programs in an era of funding transition – Sustaining HIV Prevention and Introducing / Scaling Long-Acting Prevention Tools: Navigating a Way Forward in the Current Environment, Preconference, 14:00 – 17:45
- Co-infections, viral and host diversity: Impact on HIV cure, Preconference, 9:00 – 17:45, featuring update from AVAC and partners on community perspectives and implications of US government funding issues
- Success stories and future directions in African HIV vaccine research – Clinical research successes and lessons learnt, Preconference, 9:00-12:45
Monday, July 14
- Re-imagining prevention: Planning for sustainable PrEP access in the new funding context, Satellite, 09:30 – 11:00, sponsored by AVAC and the Ministry of Health of Zambia
- Consolidating and advancing African leadership of HIV Cure strategies to accelerate cure research for Africa and the world, Satellite, 11:30 – 12:30
- The future of person-centred HIV prevention: Latest evidence from the African continent, Satellite, 11:30 – 12:30
- What’s new in WHO guidelines: Advancing prevention, testing, and treatment for impact and sustainability, Satellite, 13:00 – 14:30, including the launch of new LEN for PrEP guidelines
- Towards the finish line: Leveraging science to accelerate progress, sustain impact, and shape the future of HIV, Satellite, 15:00 – 16:30
- 2025: Time to bring HIV, sexual and reproductive health together for better care, Satellite, 15:00 – 16:30
Tuesday, July 15
- From PrEP to harm reduction: Scaling up comprehensive HIV prevention strategies, Oral abstract, 10:45 – 11:45
- How Long-Acting Drugs Can Help End the HIV Pandemic in Africa, Sponsor satellite, 12:15 – 13:15
- Confronting the storm: The future of the HIV response, Special session, 13:30 – 14:45
- No retreat, no surrender: Sustaining the HIV response in times of turmoil, Oral abstract, 15:00 – 16:00, featuring AVAC’s Richard Muko presenting about COMPASS’s comparative analysis of country policies and practices on domestic resource mobilization
- Health equity in challenging times: Threats and opportunities, Oral abstract, 16:30 – 17:30, moderated by AVAC’s Mitchell Warren
- Harnessing the private sector to deliver HIV prevention, Sponsor satellite, 18:00 – 19:30, featuring AVAC’s Catherine Verde Hashim presenting on policy shifts needed to deliver HIV prevention through the private sector
- The future of HIV prevention clinical trials, Satellite, 18:00 – 19:30, featuring AVAC’s Grace Kumwenda presenting on community perspectives in HIV prevention clinical research
Wednesday, July 16
- Implementation of long-acting PrEP in real world settings – the ImPrEP Project, Satellite, 12:15 – 13:15
- Co-Chair’s choice, Oral abstract, 15:00 – 16:00, featuring a presentation of the Phase 2 safety and pharmacokinetic study of MK-8527 as once-monthly oral PrEP
- Let’s get real: Implementing PrEP choice in practice, Symposium, 15:00 – 16:00
- Developing objective targets for monitoring PrEP program progress, Satellite, 18:00 – 19:30
Thursday, July 17
- Getting to grips with prevention, Plenary, 09:00 – 10:30, featuring updates on HIV vaccine discovery medicine and evidence-based innovations to simplify and de-medicalize PrEP choice
- Purposeful PrEP: New insights on lenacapavir for prevention, Oral abstract, 10:45 – 11:45
- Big money and the big picture: Funding and HIV epidemiology, Oral abstract, 12:15 – 13:15, featuring an AVAC presentation on how policies influenced PrEP uptake
- Pregnancy and long-acting ARVs for prevention and treatment, Symposium, 13:45 – 14:45, featuring AVAC partner Chilufya Kasanda of Ascend Futures Foundation in Zambia and updates from Merck, ViiV and Gilead on their respective PrEP programs