IAVI

On Day 4 of #IAS2024 IAVI and The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise hosted an all-star session: "Ending AIDS as a public health threat: the role of a vaccine in the era of long-acting PrEP." The list of incredible speakers, moderators, and panelists included: o  Linda-Gail Bekker, Desmond Tutu Health Foundation o  Jeanne Marrazzo, NIAID o  Maureen Luba, Cooper Smith o  Mark Feinberg, IAVI o  Susan Buchbinder, UCSF o  Yunia Mayanja, UVRI o  Ashneil Jain, PEPFAR Dr. Marrazzo made her agency's position clear: "We at NIAID are 100% committed to working with speed on an HIV vaccine," and that any strategy to get us to elimination needs to involve a vaccine. Though lenacapavir will likely be game-changing, we still need innovation across a range of prevention options--they all have to work together, across individuals' lifespans. Dr. Feinberg highlighted the promise of the rational vaccine design now guiding HIV vaccine development efforts. He stressed that we now have a destination that can guide HIV vaccine development work, and that the approach we’re currently using—germline targeting—offers greater promise than any vaccine development approach used in the past. Maureen Luba stressed that her community engagement work has shown her that community members think there's a place for an HIV vaccine in the AIDS response, and the importance of vaccine production on the African continent. Dr. Buchbinder spoke about how HIV vaccine efficacy trials can be designed even in this new era of long-acting prevention options. Dr. Mayanja spoke about user preference in HIV prevention products, highlighting the results of a study capturing young women’s preferences that revealed a preference for an HIV vaccine. Ashneil Jain remarked on the need for coordination as a global community to shape the market for HIV prevention products and highlighted the risk that may come from success: waning political interest in HIV. Linda-Gail Bekker provided excellent moderation and insight throughout. Thank you very much to our panelists for their participation in this session.

Day four of #AIDS2024 opened with a plenary on HIV prevention strategies, kicked off by former IAS president Peter Piot who noted the unique challenges and opportunities of this moment in history. Next, Devin Sok, head of science for the Global Health Investment Corporation and former IAVI vice president for discovery and innovation, presented a talk entitled "HIV vaccines: Where are we now and what does the future look like?" Sok stressed the important role that a vaccine, along with other prevention options, would play in ending AIDS as a public health threat. Focusing on vaccine strategies to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies, he described several ongoing research programs, including IAVI’s. Sok used an Olympics-related theme to shape his very accessible talk, likening the germline-targeting HIV vaccination strategy to a training program that can identity promising athletes (naïve, germline antibodies) and train them (with a rationally designed sequence of immunogens) to become elite athletes (broadly neutralizing antibodies that can block HIV infection). He stressed that the field must not neglect planning for affordability and access to eventual vaccines and that vaccination can and must be synergistic with other prevention tools. IAVI colleagues also presented two posters on day four. Kashma Goyal presented 'Leveraging digital gamification strategies for communicating next-generation HIV vaccine science to communities living in hish-risk environments,' and brought with her the actual game for interested parties to take a stab at playing. This IAVI author needs to work on her virtual gaming skills! Monal Nagrath presented 'Conducting experimental medicine vaccine trials (EMVTs) in Sub-Saharan Africa and India- complexities and potential safeguards for trial participants,' illuminating some of the challenges and potential solutions of running EMVTs in areas with high need. Stay tuned for our final updates and we close out this exciting and busy week!

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🔔 Thursday is a big day at #AIDS2024! Join us for an IAVI-hosted satellite session: "Ending AIDS as a public health threat: the role of a vaccine in the era of long-acting PrEP" from 18:00-19:30. This session will feature remarks from IAVI’s president and CEO Mark Feinberg, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Jeanne Marrazzo, and other distinguished panelists. We hope to see you there! For more events: https://lnkd.in/eVcACe3X

IAVI’s third day at #AIDS2024 started with a takeover of the booth hosted by the German government, where IAVI’s Hester Kuipers and Vincent Muturi Kioi spoke about IAVI’s mission and our HIV and TB vaccine development programs. Vincent spoke about the IAVI’s germline targeting strategy for HIV vaccine development, and the potential for HIV vaccine to play a key role in the eventual elimination of HIV. He highlighted that this approach is designed to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies to generate protection, which has not been achieved in any prior HIV vaccine trials. Hester spoke about IAVI’s exciting momentum in progressing a TB vaccine candidate, MTBVAC, which will enter a Phase 2B clinical trial later this year. Thank you very much to our hosts for giving us this platform for IAVI’s work! IAVI’s global access team, led by Shelly Malhotra and Katerina Chapman, and in collaboration with our wonderful partners, launched the Action Plan to accelerate broadly neutralizing antibodies for infant peri-natal and post-natal HIV prophylaxis in a satellite session this evening. The Action Plan session was opened by IAVI Board Member Linda-Gail Bekker. The plan is a blueprint for the field, designed help rapidly advance this promising new technology from clinical development all the way through to licensure and access for those who need it most. IAVI’s Vincent Muturi Kioi spoke about the requirements for successful bnAbs: that they have both breadth and potency, and the role of strategies like immunobridging to help bring bnAbs through licensure. Thank you to all of our panelists who participated today. A poster presentation of IAVI and our partner the Humsafar Trust’s work on gamification approaches for HIV prevention was presented by our colleague Shruta Rawat. In the Global Village, IAVI’s William Dekker moderated a discussion focused on how to increase vaccine literacy in communities, with remarks from IAVI’s George Owino and Katerina Chapman. The panelists discussed how they worked directly with communities, incorporating partner and community feedback at multiple points throughout, to develop community messaging that explains broadly neutralizing antibodies and their potential as an HIV prevention tool. We’re looking forward to day four tomorrow!

JUST LAUNCHED AT #AIDS2024 🚀 "Accelerating bnAbs for peri- and post-natal HIV prophylaxis: An Action Plan” #bnAbs have the potential to protect babies from acquiring HIV. We need funders, policymakers, pharma, manufacturers, civil society, and many more global health stakeholders to collectively push this agenda forward. Our new Action Plan outlines key recommendations and resources needed to make this a reality. Please read and amplify within your networks. READ NOW: https://lnkd.in/eJeymwTv Thank you to all task force members for their collaboration on this critical publication! Desmond Tutu Health Foundation | USAID | World Health Organization #InfantHealth #HIVPrevention

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It’s a wrap on day two! IAVI’s second day of #AIDS2024 began with an early morning session on “Advancing Community Engagement in HIV Prevention/Implementation Research.” The session explored effective practices and tools, highlighted gaps, and identified future directions for enhancing community engagement in HIV prevention and implementation research. Presenters from IAVI and partners, including APCOM Foundation, the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research India, RD Rwanda, and the Centre for Sexuality & Health Research and Policy India, shared insights from their work. They discussed what has worked, current activities, and future needs, focusing on MSM, FSW, and other key populations. The session acknowledged that effective community involvement is essential for successful and ethically robust studies, and that strong community engagement enhances understanding, appreciation, and participation in HIV research. IAVI’s Smriti Bhagi, who shared learnings from HIV prevention research in India, emphasized that co-creation is the fulcrum for equitable research partnerships with vulnerable communities. Our second day also featured three fantastic IAVI poster presentations: ·      Joyeeta Mukherjee presented ‘Mental models reflect continued demand and unique value of vaccines for HIV prevention: insights from an end-user study in India, Uganda, and South Africa’ ·      Shweta Chatrath presented ‘Including pregnant and breast-feeding mothers in HIV prevention trials’ ·      Paromita Saha presented ‘Enhanced HIV science literacy and improved motivation towards participation in biomedical research among key communities in India—the role of gamification and experiential-learning based interventions’ During the satellite session ‘Reaching the unreached: experiences and strategies in engaging hard-to-reach communities in virtual and physical spaces,’ hosted by our partners at the Humsafar Trust, presenters brought to light the potential of digital tools to reach some of the hardest-to-reach communities in India. IAVI’s Paromita Saha spoke about the power of gamification to share health information with young people. IAVI’s Joyeeta Mukherkjee was happy to contribute to a roundtable discussion about the most effective approaches for engaging hard-to-reach populations, where trust is so important. Stay tuned for our insights from day three!

🔔 What's happening on Wednesday at #AIDS2024? Join us from 18:00-19:30 for a key satellite session: An Action Plan to accelerate bnAbs for peri- and post-natal prophylaxis (PNP)! This session will launch a new Action Plan outlining cross-cutting priority activities and resources needed to accelerate development and availability of bnAbs for infant HIV prophylaxis. It will be moderated by Linda-Gail Bekker, CEO of Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, and IAVI’s Shelly Malhotra, vice president of global access and external affairs. You can also find IAVI in the poster exhibition area and giving an interview at the German Government booth. More here: https://lnkd.in/ezivDtwg

As thousands gather this week for the 25th International AIDS Conference in Munich, participants will look to tie together a quarter of a century of HIV/AIDS and the latest advances in treatment, prevention, and cure research. Progress is impossible without the tireless effort that goes into building labs/clinics in the hardest-hit areas and supporting young infectious disease researchers, especially on the African continent. One engine for this work is the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). The EDCTP’s efforts will show up at #AIDS2024 this week when researchers share results from early-phase safety trials. All this and more in our new IAVI Report: https://lnkd.in/e4YvSg86