AVAC in the News
“Implementation science is about how to implement the fruits of research, but if we don’t continue to fund the political channel networks, we won’t have fruits of labor to then implement in the years to come.”
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Infectious disease specialists protest HIV funding cuts
In Washington D.C., AVAC and fellow advocates and infectious disease specialists protested funding cuts to HIV research, prevention, and treatment. The rally took place in front a wall of quilts created this year and last to protest cuts to HIV research and care. The #CutsKill quilt, created by the advocacy group Save HIV Funding, recalls the AIDS quilt created during the 1980s and 1990s to memorialize people who died from the disease. "So much is at risk,” said Mitchell Warren, AVAC's Executive Director. “So much progress, so many lives, so much opportunity.”
Source: CIDRAP
Funding shifts leave HIV community-based organizations with less say
Shock waves rippled through the network of U.S. HIV/AIDS service organizations when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced in July that it would no longer directly fund nearly 100 community-based organizations (CBOs), as it had for many years, instead shifting funding to state and local health departments. Mitchell Warren, AVAC's Executive Director, says that the shift away from involving communities is part of a larger effort to conceal PEPFAR’s activities and progress from outside observers and advocates. "The U.S. government has dramatically changed how it treats civil society, which has been tumultuous and leaves us with a lot of confusion."
Source: Positively Aware
HIV advocates sound alarm as NIH hits ‘pause’ on new HIV clinical trials
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) notified four major research networks that they should “pause” new clinical studies that had not yet enrolled participants and that could not be completed by November 30, 2027, when their current funding expires. As AVAC's Executive Director Mitchell Warren says, "This may be one of the most shortsighted, scientifically absurd and ideologically wrong decisions, and there have been a lot of those in the last 20 months."
Source: Positively Aware
Is Aspen betting on the right HIV prevention product?
Following Aspen Pharmacare's announcement that it will not be manufacturing the lenacapavir HIV prevention injection and will instead focus on producing alimatravir, Spotlight explores the reasoning behind Aspen’s decision and assesses what it all means for local pharmaceutical production. The article features infographics produced by AVAC, tracking PrEP price comparisons and alimatravir clinical trials.
Source: Spotlight
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In The Spotlight | What are broadly neutralising antibodies and what do they mean for the fight against HIV?
Spotlight highlights research on broadly neutralising antibodies (bNAbs) and their potential role in the future of HIV treatment and prevention. As AVAC explains, “About 20 percent of people living with HIV naturally develop bNAbs, after many years. By the time bNAbs have developed in these individuals, the constantly mutating HIV has outpaced these defenders, changing too fast and too significantly for bNAbs to be effective in that individual. But that same bNAb, or a combination of them, may work in someone else."
Source: Spotlight
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SA and Zambia’s HIV shot dilemma: Demand versus supply
Early data shows South Africa and Zambia have high demand for lenacapavir (LEN), the twice-yearly HIV prevention injection. But clinics don’t yet have enough doses for everyone who wants it. In Bhekisisa, AVAC's Executive Director Mitchell Warren weighs in on the excitement surrounding LEN and what a successful rollout will require.
Source: Bhekisisa
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Anxiety in Paradise: Highlights From the 26th International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro
Following AIDS 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, TheBody reflected on the stark disparities on display. “There were all of these tensions there,” AVAC's Executive Director Mitchell Warren said. “Between the amazing science and the difficult political and economic time we’re in. Between the opportunity of new, long-acting prevention tools and the fact that we were in a region of the world where access to them doesn’t exist. And between what could be and what currently is.”
Source: TheBody
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Aids is no longer exceptional. What happens now?
Following AIDS 2026, Bhekisisa's Mia Malan reflects on the annual conference that took place amid an unprecedented funding crisis and the dwindling political will to address HIV. As AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren said, “What comes out of a conference [or movement] is more important than what happened at the conference. Three to six months from now, we need to ask: are we working differently because we gathered in Rio? ...I hope the answer will be clear: coming together and planning together strengthened our Aids response. That’s the measure of success.”
Source: Bhekisisa
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The Second Injection
In her Substack, Skye Grove unpacks the distance that still lies between products and services and the people who need them. Reflecting on AIDS 2026 conversations and sessions, she shares insights from AVAC's Executive Director Mitchell Warren, Access Bridge's Executive Director Wawira Nyagah, and AVAC partners like Yvette Raphael and Adaobi Lisa Olisa.
Source: Skye Grove's Substack
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Merck’s alimatravir licensing deal receives mixed response
In July, Merck announced licensing agreements with seven manufacturers for generic production of its HIV drug alimatravir, though access and equity concerns remain. As AVAC's Executive Director Mitchell Warren explained, AVAC hopes to see Merck pledge to reach at least 2 million people with alimatravir within the first year of product launch and 5 million within the first 2 years, and guarantee it will be available in LMICs within 3 months of first approval. “These targets are a bare minimum and entirely feasible. We need this to jump-start the scale of the market, drive down prices and, most importantly, deliver impact”, Warren said.
Source: The Lancet
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