AVAC Report For nearly 15 years, AVAC has published an annual review of biomedical prevention research. Over this period, the focus of the AVAC Repo

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AVAC Report

For nearly 15 years, AVAC has published an annual review of biomedical prevention research. Over this period, the focus of the AVAC Report has expanded from AIDS vaccine research alone to the full spectrum of options, including pre-exposure prophylaxis, microbicides, male circumcision and HSV-2 treatment. This comprehensive document reviews progress, makes recommendations and analyzes emerging issues.

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Visit our AVAC Report Archive to view the AVAC Reports from 1998-2009

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AVAC Report 2010: Turning the Page

We’ve called this year’s 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.

In each chapter we address a critical question facing the field as it writes the next chapter: What needs to happen next to ensure that the vaccine field capitalizes on the momentum from the Thai Prime-Boost trial? (Chapter One); How successful was community engagement in the largest AIDS vaccine trial in history? (Chapter Two); Is the AIDS vaccine field doing all that it can with the data and materials it has amassed or aims to collect? (Chapter Three); What kinds of trials will provide answers to the complex questions emerging in the microbicide, PrEP and vaccine fields? (Chapter Four); Is the world ready for the promise and pitfalls of ARV-based prevention strategies for HIV-positive and HIV-negative people? (Closing section). Turning the Page (full report)

What Belongs in the Next Chapter

• A letter from the Executive Director
• AVAC’s Top Recommendations for 2010 and Beyond
• Status Report: An update on last year’s recommendations

Chapter One - “Proof of Concept” and its Consequences: Making sense of the post-RV144 world

• Basics of RV144
• RV144 Results
• RV144 Trial Locations
• RV144: A Brief History
• Moment of Truth: Action and accountability for the Enterprise

Chapter Two - The Thai Way Forward: What comes after the largest AIDS vaccine trial in the world?

Chapter Three - Data and Materials: A “to-do” list for the future

• Intellectual Property and Access: Revisiting our 2005 recommendations
• Data and Materials: Defining the terms

Chapter Four - Trials and Trial Design: Where does prevention research go from here?

• ARV-based Prevention Update

Closing - Speak with One Voice, Work Towards One Goal

AVAC’s Global Partners in Prevention Research Advocacy

About AVAC

Boxes, Figures and Tables

• Turning the Page: The need to diversify funding sources
• Turning the Page: Applying lessons from recent trials
• Turning the Page: Engaging new talent in the search for an AIDS vaccine
• Turning the Page: Innovation in prevention packages
• Adaptive Trials versus Classical Trials: A highly-optimistic comparison
• AVAC’s Web-based Resources
• What is Community Engagement?
• Learning our Lessons on Community Engagement: Another trial, another lesson?
• Sharing the Search for Clues: Step and RV144 post-trial analysis
• Sticking to It: Keeping up with the challenges of adherence
• Ongoing ARV-based Prevention Trials (as of June 2010)
• The Global AIDS Response: Five Current Myths Versus Current Realities

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A preview of AVAC Report 2010 featuring an excerpt of The Thai Way Forward

This special excerpt of AVAC Report 2010: Turning the Page includes a provocative, on-the-ground article about RV144, also known as the Thai Prime-Boost study, which provided evidence that an AIDS vaccine is possible. This piece looks at some of the questions and reactions that this landmark study raised for the Thai participants, scientists and advocates.

The full AVAC Report 2010, published in July, reviews the broader state of—and debates around—AIDS vaccines and other HIV prevention research. For this special preview, the release of which coincides with HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 2010, we focus on Thai voices because perspectives from the countries where efficacy trials take place should be front and center.

We’ve titled this year’s Report Turning the Page, because we see the Thai trial result as starting a new chapter for AIDS vaccine research. In this excerpt, and in the full Report, AVAC lays out some of the things that we hope will part of the story that’s still to come.

Download The Thai Way Forward (English)

A Thai translation of this excerpt will be available shortly