Breakthroughs Blog: HIV/AIDS

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.Last week, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced plans for a US$1.76 million investment to advance and expand the scope and technology of the Spillover app, a platform created at the University of California, Davis that could be key to identifying and preparing for “Disease X,” a virus with pandemic potential that has yet to be identified. The platform includes a database with more than 500,000 samples from an estimated 74,000 animals in 28 different countries around the world, and CEPI’s investments will further its capabilities to identify viruses that are most likely to spill over to humans. The platform is hoping to use that data to prioritize and streamline investments in a library of vaccines, aimed at protecting against the viral families that pose the greatest threats, that are ready to be adapted against “Disease X” within 100 days of its identification.South Africa will begin piloting a new every-other-month HIV prevention shot as new modelling released last week showed that the shot could prevent as many as 52,000 new infections over the next 20 years if rolled out nationally. The pilot will begin after approval from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, which is expected early next year. Two large clinical trials found that the shot was more effective than the oral HIV prevention pill, Truvada, in part because it is taken much less frequently than the daily pill. However, the shot will only be available, at least in the short-term, in small pilot projects, and the high price is still a major barrier to the product being cost-effective in South Africa.Results from the STREAM clinical trial, shared last week at the Union World Conference at Lung Health showed that two shorter treatment regimens for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) including a fully oral nine-month bedaquiline-based regimen and a six-month injection-containing regimen have been shown to be safer and more effective that the nine-month regimen, which combines pills and injections, that is still in wide use. The STREAM trial was the largest-ever MDR-TB trial ever conducted with more than 1,000 participants across eight countries. The findings from the trial strengthen the evidence for bedaquiline as a component of improved drug-resistant therapies (bedaquiline is also a component of the six-month BPaL and BPaLM regimens, which were endorsed for use against most forms of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the World Health Organization's rapid communication on tuberculosis treatment guidelines released earlier this year).

At GHTC, we get to read stories every day about incredible innovations in global health. Most of the technologies we see are inventive, some are revolutionary, and a few are so unusual, one might think they were ripped from the pages of a science fiction novel. Now, we’re testing how well you know these global health technologies with our annual Halloween game: the TRICK or TREATment quiz.For each question, we will present a description of a global health technology. Choose TREATment if you believe this innovation exists. Choose TRICK if you think we are trying to pull one over on you and, instead, the product is still in development or is just a figment of our imagination. 

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.Regulators in Zimbabwe have approved long-acting injectable cabotegravir, (CAB-LA), making the country the first in Africa and the third in the world (after Australia and the United States) to approve the drug. The World Health Organization (WHO) called the approval a “crucial step” and noted that it would support the implementation and distribution of the prevention method in the country to maximize impact. WHO previously issued a recommendation for CAB-LA in July that cited its high efficacy in reducing HIV transmission among high-risk individuals.A research team from the University of Cape Town published new findings showing evidence that a cancer drug currently in clinical trials has shown potential in protecting from, curing, and preventing malaria transmission. The investigational drug, sapanisertib, acts by killing the human malaria parasite in the liver, the human host red blood cell, and when it divides sexually within the host red blood cells. This is an incredibly significant finding as the drug exhibits a novel mechanism of action as well as activity against multiple stages of the parasite life cycle. Further research could lead to the development of a critically needed novel malaria drug that contributes to malaria control and elimination efforts as well as addresses drug resistance.The United States provided Gilead Sciences’ antiviral, remdesivir, and Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc’s experimental antibody drug, MBP134, to Uganda in an effort to help prevent further cases and deaths in the outbreak, which is now the largest outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola in over 20 years. Both Ugandan and US government officials noted the need for treatment to protect the lives of health care workers, which is a key step in containment.  

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. Excision BioTherapeutics is investigating whether a single Crispr infusion can effectively keep HIV at undetectable levels in the body. If effective, this innovation could eliminate the need for daily antiretroviral therapy. The Crispr therapy attempts to disrupt the replication process by targeting regions in the HIV genome that are critical in that process. While antiretroviral drugs can stop the virus from replicating, the Crispr therapy is designed to go further by ensuring that the virus cannot reactivate in the future. The trial aims to enroll nine participants and compare the efficacy of three different dosages. The Medicines Patent Pool has signed a voluntary licensing agreement with Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi, to allow low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) rapid access to its COVID-19 antiviral treatment pill, contingent on its regulatory approval. Under the agreement, the Medicines Patent Pool will grant sub-licenses to qualified generic manufacturers to produce the antiviral (ensitrelvir fumaric acid) in 117 LMICs. The candidate, which showed promising results in phase 2/3 trials, could make a significant difference in low-and middle-income countries with low vaccination rates.The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has granted a multi-year contract to Vir Biotechnology with US$55 million in funding to support its influenza-focused antibody drug that is expected to continue trials soon. The contract also allows for a potential billion-dollar investment for the development of candidates against emerging infectious diseases, including influenza. The funding is aimed at improving pandemic preparedness efforts through investments in technologies that target pathogens with pandemic potential.