AVAC Calls for AIDS Vaccine Field to Implement New Scientific Strategic Plan Released by Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Contact:
Mitchell Warren, +1-914-661-1536,
mitchell@avac.org
Kay
Marshall, +1-347-249-6375, kay@avac.org
New York, NY, – AVAC
welcomes the new Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise
Scientific Strategic Plan, released today, as a
critical document that the field must implement
as part of ongoing efforts to improve
coordination, efficiency and transparency to
quickly capitalize on recent advances in AIDS
vaccine research.
The Plan comes at a
crucial time in the field. In the last year,
the RV144 Thai vaccine trial proved that an
AIDS vaccine is possible, which along with the
identification of new potent, HIV-specific
neutralizing antibodies have re-energized AIDS
vaccine researchers, advocates and
funders.
“This is the most exciting
period in HIV vaccine research in the last
three decades. As we enter this new era in
vaccine and HIV prevention research,
scientists, funders and advocates are grappling
with both the excitement of scientific
breakthroughs and the realities of funding
shortfalls. This plan has the potential to help
meet the current challenges in the field,”
said Mitchell Warren, AVAC executive director.
“But a plan is only as good as its execution,
and AVAC will be watching and reporting on how
the field comes together to capitalize both on
the consensus of the plan and the promise of
the science.”
The new Scientific
Strategic Plan provides important signposts for
the way forward, but the field must also be
willing to be flexible and adaptable to quickly
react to the changing realities of the AIDS
epidemic and biomedical
research.
“This plan proposes a
comprehensive strategy that goes beyond the
scientific activities of any single funder or
organization,” said Bill Snow, a co-founder
of AVAC, who was involved in the planning
process. "There is now an urgent need to
broaden international participation in the work
that is necessary to build on the recent
developments that have made HIV vaccine design
and development as exciting and essential as it
has ever been."
AVAC recommends the
following actions to realize the potential of
the Plan:
- The Enterprise, through the secretariat and its governing Council, develop a comprehensive and ambitious resource mobilization strategy that identifies key gaps, new funding sources and opportunities to make the best use of already committed funds.
- The Enterprise secretariat, with guidance and input from its scientific working groups, identify priority, time-sensitive issues that could be resolved or refined through immediate, Enterprise-led action.
- Each Enterprise member articulate how their funding and/or scientific decisions are aligned with the Plan, or articulate why not.
“Now more than ever, HIV vaccine research must also be seen in the context of the overall research agenda for HIV prevention,” Warren added. “Even as this plan is executed, the AIDS vaccine field must adapt to emerging results from other biomedical prevention trials, such as microbicides and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), by preparing for positive data with new ideas for trial design and combination prevention.”
AVAC’s annual state of the field report on vaccines and HIV prevention research, which provides more information about the way forward for prevention research and more detail about our expectations of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, is available online at www.avac.org/avacreport. The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise Scientific Strategic Plan is being published open access today by Nature Medicine and available at www.vaccineenterprise.org.