The January 2010 issue of Nature Medicine highlights the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)—a partnership between 47 sub-Saharan African countries and 14 European Union member states plus Norway and Switzerland.  The articles notes that the EDCTP-funded Networks of Excellence for Western, Eastern, Central and Southern Africa all have their contracts signed, which means that every sub-Saharan African region has its own network for enhancing the infrastructur

To support the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise’s efforts to raise the visibility and participation in the HIV vaccine field of Young and Early Career Investigators, the CAVD recognizes the young or early career investigators who have made significant contributions to research conducted within the CAVD. The January 2010 honorees include Dr. Yongjun Guan from Dr. Robert Gallo’s Vaccine Discovery Consortium and Dr. Alexandre Harari from Dr. Richard Koup’s T cell Vaccine Immune Monitoring Consortium.

The Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) based in Entebbe, Uganda was recommended to host the Secretariat of the African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP), an initiative to support a coordinated international effort to promote the development of and future access to HIV vaccines suitable for use in Africa. The AAVP Secretariat has been based in Geneva, Switzerland since 2000. A transition of AAVP to a fully functional African programme began more than a year ago and should be complete by the first quarter of 2010.

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative released a statement congratulating the partners involved in the MDP 301 Phase III clinical trial of a vaginal microbicide on the successful conduct of the largest microbicide trial completed to date. IAVI said the trial itself provided other achievements that will help advance microbicide development and HIV prevention research generally. Please see the below attachment for the full statement.

According to a NIAID statement, an investigational vaginal gel that had demonstrated in earlier testing some potential for inhibiting male-to-female sexual transmission of HIV was ineffective when tested in a larger clinical trial. Please see the below attachment for the full statement.

The Microbicides Development Programme announced that its MDP 301 effectiveness trial, which was conducted among almost 9,400 women in four African countries, found no evidence that the PRO 2000 microbicide reduces the risk of HIV infection.

IN THE LIFE, a public television documentary series, released a special World AIDS Day episode entitled "Creating Solutions." This episode includes a special segment on the search for an AIDS vaccine. It features interviews with Anthony Fauci and Gary Nabel from the NIH; Sarah Schlesinger from Rockefeller University and Mitchell Warren of AVAC. If you live in the US, visit the following link to find out when the episode will air on your local station: http://www.inthelifetv.org/html/schedule.shtml.

The International AIDS Society in collaboration with the Centers for AIDS Research Program, U.S. National Institutes of Health, request concept proposals for a research grant program for early career investigators with no prior experience in HIV research. Please click the below link to learn more about the Creative and Novel Ideas in Research Awards Program.

Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, wrote a piece for the Huffington Post calling for the celebration of the possibility of an AIDS vaccine. Please click here to read the piece http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mitchell-warren/celebrating-the-possible_b....

A Phase 1 study of a preventive HIV vaccine show that a novel delivery mechanism known as electroporation helped to enhance the immunogenicity of the vaccine tested. Results were presented at the end of October at the AIDS Vaccine Conference in Paris, France. Please see the IAVI and Ichor Medical Systems, Inc. announcement below for more information.