SEATTLE — JULY 1, 2020 — The NIAID-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) remains committed to the scientific journey for a safe and globally effective preventive HIV vaccine. Despite significant breakthroughs in HIV prevention and treatment, there are an estimated 5,000 new HIV infections worldwide every day. The need for a biomedical intervention that is accessible and scalable will help curb the impact of HIV/AIDS on communities. 

Join us in wishing Susan Buchbinder, M.D., Director of Bridge HIV at the San Francisco Department of Public Health and Stephaun E. Wallace, Ph.D., HVTN’s Director External Relations the best on their talks at the conference. Rafael Gonzalez, Community Programs Manager at Bridge HIV, San Francisco Department of Public Health will present a virtual poster presentation.   

Dr. Buchbinder will deliver a plenary titled: Biomedical HIV Prevention: Beyond daily oral PrEP. According to AIDS 2020, her talk will “cover why, despite its high efficacy, daily oral PrEP alone is not sufficient to reach all populations who need highly effective prevention strategies. Strategies including alternate PrEP dosing schedules, drugs, and modes of delivery; post-exposure prophylaxis; monoclonal antibodies and HIV vaccines will be discussed”.

“People need to be able to choose which HIV prevention option works best for them – no one methodology will work for everyone at all times. Therefore, we need a robust menu of safe and highly effective options for all populations at risk for HIV infection.” – Susan Buchbinder, M.D.

Registered delegates can access the full plenary on:

• Thursday, July 9 at 5 p.m. PDT / 9 p.m. GMT-3 / 8 a.m. CST
• Prime session 3: Prevention

Dr. Wallace’s talk is titled: Vaccine trial enrollment considerations in an era of PrEP which will be presented alongside Helen Rees and Sinead Delany-Moretlwe of Wits RHI, Jeffrey Murray of the US Food and Drug Administration, Holly Janes of Fred Hutch/University of Washington, Bridget Haire of The Kirby Institute, Peter Godfrey-Faussett of UNAIDS, and Kenneth Mayer of Fenway Health in the session: SSO5- Trials, tribulations and prevention.

"PrEP is an important component in the HIV prevention conversation, and how we think about developing future HIV prevention efficacy studies will not only require us to acknowledge PrEP as standard-of-care, but we must also consider many other factors including relevant community-level and ethical considerations for conducting studies with multiple effective HIV prevention interventions.” – Stephaun Wallace, Ph.D.

Registered delegates can access the full session on-demand 24 hours/day and the live Q&A on the following days:

• Wednesday, July 8 at 1 a.m. PST
• Thursday, July 9 at 8 a.m. PST

Rafael’s poster is titled: HIV Prevention Product Preferences Among Participants Who Completed The AMP HVTN 704/HPTN 085 Clinical Trial. Co-authorship on the poster includes, Houshangi S, Oseso L, Van Tieu H, Mayer K, Shoptaw S, Okafor CN, and Andrasik M.

“Given the AMP participants’ experiences with daily oral PrEP and a clinical trial assessing bnAb infusions, the range in the sample opinions about what current and potential HIV prevention methods they would prefer emphasizes a need to continue to diversify prevention options.” – Rafael Gonzalez.

Registered delegates can access the virtual exhibition on July 6 – 10

Note from conference organizers:

The pre-recorded sessions will be available online, on-demand, 24 hours per day in a session “catalogue” starting Friday, 3 July 2020 midnight (EST). Conference participants will have access to the content until the end of the conference on Friday, 10 July 2020.

We acknowledge and thank all members of our communities and organizations who are at the forefront helping us remain steadfast in our mission for a safe preventive HIV vaccine amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Access our public statement on how we are responding.

###

Media Contact: