AVAC Calls for Speedy Funding of Critical Microbicide Follow-Up Studies
Friday, September 3, 2010
For immediate release:
September 3, 2010
Contact:
Kay Marshall, +1-347-249-6375,
kay@avac.org
New York, NY, – AVAC today issues
a call to action to donors, policy-makers,
researchers and advocates to ensure that
critical follow-up studies to the landmark
CAPRISA 004 microbicide trial receive the
economic and political support needed to move
forward as quickly as possible. The call comes
as a group of microbicide and public health
experts have agreed upon a plan for further
studies, which are expected to cost $100
million over three years, of which only $58
million has been committed.
“We have
an imperative to learn about the effectiveness
of 1 percent tenofovir gel, the product tested
in CAPRISA 004. If the results are confirmed,
we now have an incredible opportunity to
translate a clinical trial result into public
health impact -- and we should not miss it”
said Mitchell Warren, AVAC executive
director.
A group of key decision
makers met recently in South Africa to develop
a comprehensive research agenda to build on the
results of the CAPRISA 004 microbicide gel
trial. At that meeting, public health
officials, researchers, and regulators moved
with remarkable speed to develop a consensus
plan that calls for a set of studies aimed at
confirming the CAPRISA 004 results and
developing implementation strategies.
“A plan is in place to move the
research forward, and funders and policy makers
must now move quickly ensure that it can be
implemented as soon as possible,” Warren
added. “Women in South Africa and
around the world are calling for access to this
product. We have a moral obligation to quickly
and efficiently answer the remaining questions
that will tell us if this is an intervention
that can be used and how it will need to be
implemented.”
“These results could
lead to one of most exciting breakthroughs in
the history of the AIDS epidemic. This
microbicide could be an important tool to help
women protect themselves from HIV.” said
Warren. “At the same time that researchers
work to confirm the results, we must also
ensure that plans are in place to ensure swift
regulatory approvals and implementation
programs. A safe and effective microbicide must
not follow the same slow route to full
implementation as the female
condom.”
The microbicide field has
been energized by this result, as has the
larger field of biomedical prevention research.
We must not lose momentum,” Warren added.
“There is funding in place for microbicide
research and other trials are ongoing, but
there is a real risk that the development of 1
percent tenofovir gel will languish without a
new infusion of funding specifically targeted
to moving this product and dosing strategy
forward.”
“Knowing that AIDS
treatment and other global health priorities
are starved for resources, we do not make the
call for additional funds for this research
lightly,” Warren added. “But a
relatively small investment in this research
agenda has the potential to reap huge rewards
in the number of new infections that can be
prevented if 1 percent tenfovir proves to be
even a partially effective
microbicide.”
It is critical that as
the field moves forward with a research agenda
for this strategy, a full and robust HIV
prevention research agenda continues and the
microbicide pipeline is expanded to ensure the
development of additional dosing and delivery
methods that will work for more women and men.
Several key HIV prevention trials are underway,
including other microbicide dosing strategies
and formulations, PrEP (testing antiretroviral
drugs in oral form), and vaccines. A
combination of new HIV prevention
interventions, along with scaled up treatment
and care programs, are needed to end the AIDS
epidemic.
More information about the
CAPRISA 004 result and ARV-based prevention is
available in AVAC’s new publication A Cascade
of Hope and Questions: Understanding the
Results of CAPRISA 004 available at www.avac.org.
A
UNAIDS press release about the meeting is
available at http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/PressCentre/PressReleases/2010/