AVAC

AVAC is a non-profit organization that focuses on HIV prevention. The organization purposes to make use of existing global networks to accelerate the delivery and proliferation of AIDS vaccines, male circumcision, microbicides, etc. It was founded in 1995 as the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition to give organizations working in HIV prevention access to each other in order to prevent overlap and has since expanded to fund biomedical research in HIV prevention.

Because AVAC’s mission is to empower organizations already in existence, and does not create programs itself, it has a Program Director who is in charge of working with partners in different countries in terms of advocacy. The organization has a Finance and Administration Director who oversees all the money they receive from governments, foundations, etc., a Senior Advisor who monitors research and development in order to mobilize support for research, and an Executive Director who is in charge of generally overseeing the vision of the organization. Each of these senior positions also has many associate positionsß.

In 2012, AVAC’s budget was $4.3 million. The organization was funded by donors—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNAIDS, and the WHO, among many others—and its members.  The organization does not take any funding from pharma companies, in order to avoid agenda-pushing and politics. Its large range of donors reinforces its mission to ensure support to organizations already on the ground. Because they do not accept money from pharmaceutical companies, they are free to give money to whatever research they deem important for the prevention of HIV.

The fact that the organization does not accept money from pharma companies is huge in regards to the type of research it can do. Big pharma is often directed by money, and therefore a lot of research and development that these companies do is not necessarily in the interest of smaller, poorer countries that have the most need for drugs. In 2010 and 2011, the organization was mostly focused on PrEP research. It has since broadened its investments, and in 2012, supported research in the areas of PrEP/microbicides, vaccines, and partner treatment.

The organization helps to set the agenda for action and push for policy by its financial support of on the ground organizations and its financial support of research. By giving money to certain programs, it is thereby proliferating a particular manner of addressing HIV across the globe. The same goes for research—by putting money into the development of new drugs, the organization is setting the tone for the way HIV prevention is handled in the future.

 

By John, Jay, Kokei, & Sandra