2010
AVAC Report: Turning the Page
We called the 2010
Report Turning the Page because the
biomedical prevention field has entered the
next chapter of its development. The past year
brought the first evidence, from the Thai
Prime-Boost trial, that an AIDS vaccine could
prevent HIV in humans, as well as significant
preclinical findings around potent,
HIV-specific neutralizing antibodies. At the
same time, two microbicide trials testing the
candidate PRO 2000 yielded seemingly different,
but ultimately disappointing results, and the
field now prepares for the release of results
from CAPRISA 004, the first ARV-based
microbicide effectiveness trial.
2009
AVAC Report: Piecing Together the
HIV Prevention Puzzle
When
conceptualizing this year's Report, we took
inspiration from a
quotation in the 2006-2008 review of the Bill
& Melinda Gates
Foundation - funded Collaboration for
AIDS Vaccine Discovery, which states that
the ultimate goal "is to develop a
vaccine that prevents HIV infection or disease,
anything less than that
can be characterized as progress, but not
success."
In the
first
section of the Report, "Puzzling Out Progress,"
we report on the AIDS
vaccine field, where there's an energized focus
on discovery,
innovation, and basic science. In the second
section, "Puzzling Out
Success," we turn to the implications of PrEP
and other strategies in
efficacy trials today. Throughout, we argue
that success will depend on
combination approaches: on research plus
implementation; on vaccines
plus PrEP, should either show benefit; and on
communities plus
researchers working towards common
goals.
AVAC
Report 2008: The Search Must
Continue
The 2008 AVAC
Report, The Search Must Continue,
provides a comprehensive review of recent
developments in AIDS vaccine research. It
explores the issues that have been raised in
the wake of the failure of Merck's vaccine
candidate and provides context for the events
and major changes of the last year in HIV
prevention research.
AVAC
Report 2007:
Resetting the
Clock
The three sections
of this report outline some specific deadlines
and challenges in AIDS vaccine scientific
strategy, clinical trials, and the broader
realm of HIV prevention. These arenas mesh like
watch gears, and must function just as smoothly
if the field is to proceed.
AVAC
Report 2006:
AIDS Vaccines: The
Next Frontiers
In this report, AVAC
offers its first contribution to the scenario
planning that we think is critical to the
success of the field. The next several years
bring a variety of scenarios which we cannot
encounter unprepared. Instead, the AIDS vaccine
field, and the field of prevention research in
general, must engage in rigorous debate,
dialogue and scenario planning which
anticipates the issues that the next few years
will bring, and ensures that the wide range of
stakeholders are informed and empowered to make
decisions to compete against the virus. In this
report, we present four thought-provoking
chapters, each of which begins with a future
scenario that considers how the world might
look in five or six or ten years'
time.
AVAC
Report 2005: AIDS Vaccines at the
Crossroads
In this report, we
offer recommendations for the field in general,
the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, policy
makers, researchers and communities. Some of
these recommendations will be familiar because
we've made them before, and we reiterate them
because we believe they are still needed. (See
our timeline of 10 years of AVAC
recommendations for a perspective on progress
over the past decade.) We also provide an
update on tenofovir pre-exposure prophylaxis
research.
AVAC
Report 2004:
AIDS Vaccine Trials:
Getting the Global House in
Order
The report focuses
on how the field is readying itself for the
road ahead. Several chapters address different
aspects of "readiness" - a term that means
different things to different people, but that
is at the heart of the AIDS vaccine advocacy
agenda today.
AVAC
Report 2003: 4 Years and Counting:
How do you Fight a Disease of Mass
Destruction?
When America became
frightened by the bio-terror threat, Congress
and the Administration moved swiftly to put
funding and incentives in place. That same kind
of decisive action is needed to accelerate
research and ensure an AIDS vaccine is
available to all who need it. This report looks
at the bioterror model, and provides the
results of our new industry survey.
AVAC
Report 2002:
5 Years and Counting:
Science, Urgency and
Courage
Five years away from
the date former President Bill Clinton set as a
goal for finding an AIDS vaccine, there are
more candidate vaccine products in development
than ever before. No one knows if any of the
current experimental vaccines will work. No one
even knows what immune response a vaccine needs
to elicit to prevent HIV disease. The only way
to obtain answers is to ask tens of thousands
of altruistic and courageous participants to
participate in dozens of trials. The only way
to obtain answers is to invest hundreds of
millions of dollars to fund these
trials.
AVAC
Report 2001: 6 Years and Counting:
Can a Shifting Landscape Accelerate an AIDS
Vaccine?
In 1996, AVAC was
the first organization to demand that
development of an AIDS vaccine become a
national goal. President Clinton set that goal
in May 1997, calling for a successful vaccine
by 2007. We are now six years away from the
goal and counting. None of the challenges
are insurmountable. The optimism that
characterizes HIV vaccine research today should
drive policy makers and researchers to grapple
effectively with the issues that remain. An HIV
vaccine is possible. The question is how soon
we find it, and who gets it when we do.
AVAC
Report 2000: 7 Years and Counting:
How Can We Overcome Obstacles to an AIDS
Vaccine?
The last year was
one of great activity across US agencies and
throughout the world. This report documents the
steadily increasing activity in the quest for a
vaccine against HIV. We have also identified
several actions necessary to accelerate
development of HIV vaccines, and we outline all
of this in the AVAC report for 2000.
AVAC
Report 1999: 8 Years and Counting:
What Will Speed the Development of an AIDS
Vaccine?
We urge government,
industry, and community to dedicate themselves
to the development of a safe and effective HIV
vaccine. If the goal for 2007 cannot be
achieved, then we need to know what will be
accomplished over the next eight years toward a
vaccine that could bring the HIV pandemic under
control. With 16,000 new HIV infections each
day, the world can afford no delay. This report
describes what each of these sectors has
accomplished during the past year and outlines
what each can do to speed the search for a
preventive vaccine.
AVAC
Report 1998: 9 Years and Counting:
Will We Have an HIV Vaccine by
2007?
This report surveys
the public- and private-sector efforts on HIV
vaccine research and development in the past
year, with a focus on the US government
agencies and pharmaceutical companies that are
most likely to make a difference. It finds
that, despite an impressive array of dedicated
researchers and increasing funding for HIV
vaccines, the world will fall short of
President Clinton's deadline. US government
research efforts are not focused on results,
leaders err on the side of caution rather than
on moving forward, responsibility is diffuse,
and the nation has stood silent as
pharmaceutical companies, including the world's
largest vaccine producer, make little or no
investment in one of the greatest public health
challenges of our century. AVAC addresses these
obstacles and recommends an agenda for action
in this report.
