October 26, 2010

Dear Advocates,

This update includes information on two webinars taking place next week: Preparing for PrEP and Other ARV-based Prevention for MSM, and Primes and Boosts: How might ARV-based prevention and vaccines work better together? These webinars are meant to help prepare advocates for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) effectiveness results expected in the coming months as well as to explore combination prevention options, highlighted at the AIDS Vaccine 2010 Conference last month.

Webinar details
Preparing for PrEP and Other ARV-based Prevention for MSM
Monday, November 1, 11am-noon US Eastern (see www.timeanddate.com for the time in your area)
Featured speaker: Ken Mayer, Fenway Health and iPrEx PrEP trial Investigator
Conducted in partnership with the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF), this webinar will provide background on PrEP, updates on research to date and identify key issues for advocates as we prepare for the upcoming results of iPrEx, the only PrEP effectiveness study in MSM. The iPrEx study is also the first PrEP trial that will report effectiveness results.

Click here to register for this webinar.

Primes and Boosts: How might ARV-based prevention and vaccines work better together?
Wednesday, November 3, noon-1pm US Eastern (see www.timeanddate.com for the time in your area)
Featured speaker: Robin Shattock, St. George's University of London
This webinar will explore recent advances in ARV-based prevention research, its implications for future AIDS vaccine research and the opportunities and challenges for cooperation and integration in basic science, product development, product combinations, trial site infrastructure and clinical trial design and implementation.

Click here to register for this webinar.

For each of these webinars, both of which will be conducted in English, there will be a short overview presentation followed by at least 30 minutes of facilitated discussion. After the webinars we will post the recording and slides to AVAC's Meeting Reports and Materials page to download and review at your leisure.

If you have a question that you would like to submit in advance to be addressed during the webinar, please send it to avac@avac.org.

For background information on PrEP, we encourage you to visit our PrEP resource page, which features a range of fact sheets in multiple languages, timelines and backgrounders and volumes 1 and 2 of the Cascade of Hope and Questions series. We also encourage you to visit the MSMGF website's ARV-based prevention strategies section, which houses additional resources on PrEP and other ARV-based prevention strategies.

We look forward to your participation!

Best,
AVAC