HIV VACCINES AND MICROBICIDES RESOURCE TRACKING WORKING GROUP
Download the report Investing to End the AIDS Epidemic: A new Era for HIV Prevention Research and Development (PDF).
The HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group was established in 2004 to generate and disseminate high-quality, detailed and comparable data on global investments in preventive HIV vaccine and microbicide research and development (R&D), and policy and advocacy activities. In 2006, the Working Group expanded its tracking efforts to include other experimental HIV prevention options, such as adult male circumcision, HSV-2 vaccines and suppression and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
Advocates, researchers, funders, and other decision makers use this information to monitor current levels of effort; identify trends in investment, spending, and research focus; identify areas needing more resources and effort; assess the impact of public policies aimed at increasing investment in new prevention options (NPOs); and provide a fact base for policy advocacy on R&D investments and allocations. The Working Group consists of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
The most recent report of the Working Group the Investing to End the AIDS Epidemic: A new Era for HIV Prevention Research and Development, was issued July, 2012 at the XIX International AIDS Society Conference in Washington, DC. This report covers investments through 2011 in HIV therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines, microbicides, adult male circumcision, the female condom, PrEP, HSV-2 prevention, prevention of vertical transmission, cure research and treatment as prevention.
The Working Group has published a report on HIV prevention research and development each year since 2004. Each report tracks investments from the previous year as well as the trends back to 2000. By identifying and tracking the resources invested in HIV prevention research and development these reports are intended to serve as a key to understanding and evaluating the global response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. An overview on how funds are being spent allows researchers, advocates, and funders to track HIV vaccine and microbicide research and development as well as new emerging prevention options such as PrEP. Information collected has been used by the Working Group and others to monitor levels of effort and investment trends, and to assess the impact of public policies aimed at accelerating scientific progress. This effort also supports the 2001 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, and the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS resolution submitted to the General Assembly after the High-Level meeting on HIV-AIDS held in June of 2011. That Declaration asserts the goal of “investing in accelerated basic research on the development of sustainable and affordable….microbicides and other new prevention technologies, including female-controlled prevention methods, ….[and] research and development for a safe, affordable, effective and accessible vaccine.” Cognizant that development of new technologies will be useless without proper implementation, the Declaration also sets the goal of “Deploying newbiomedical interventions as soon as they are validated, including female-initiated prevention methods such as microbicides, HIV treatment prophylaxis, earlier treatment as prevention, and an HIV vaccine.”
