IAVI announces termination of the PEPFAR-funded ADVANCE program and staff reductions

For over 25 years, IAVI’s research has advanced the search for an HIV vaccine. In the last decade, much of this work has been conducted through the ADVANCE (Accelerate the Development of Vaccines and New Technologies to Combat the AIDS Epidemic) program, a flagship program funded by PEPFAR through USAID.  

Today, IAVI announces the early closure of the ADVANCE program and staff reductions following the receipt of a termination notice from USAID on Feb. 26. This difficult decision was made to ensure IAVI’s long-term sustainability and ability to deliver on our mission to translate science into global health impact. 

IAVI’s greatest asset is its people. The staff departing IAVI are exceptionally dedicated, talented, and hard-working, and their efforts made a tangible impact on the development of the tools that will eventually bring an end to the HIV epidemic. The HIV epidemic continues to have enormous global impact: nearly 40 million people are living with HIV, with over 600,000 lives a year lost. IAVI is immensely proud of the enormous contributions they and our entire team have made to the advancement of global public health via highly effective research collaborations with our longstanding partners in Africa and India. Sadly, while closure of the ADVANCE program will impact IAVI directly, it will also have significant negative consequences for our wonderful collection of research partners who work with tremendous dedication and skill to protect the communities they serve from ongoing threats posed by the unrelenting HIV pandemic.

The achievements of ADVANCE over its nearly 20-year history have vastly improved the scientific understanding of the biology of HIV transmission and disease progression. Multiple epidemiologic studies and clinical trials conducted by ADVANCE partners have generated critically important insights that are now being translated into highly promising new approaches for the prevention and treatment of HIV infection. In the course of these studies, hundreds of thousands of valuable samples have informed the development of vaccine immunogens and broadly neutralizing antibodies, several of which are now in clinical testing.

Importantly, ADVANCE-enabled discoveries provided foundational insights that are now being translated into very promising new approaches to develop an efficacious HIV vaccine. ADVANCE has a rich legacy of working in vulnerable communities to describe the burden of HIV in a manner that shaped national and local HIV policy. The program furthermore partnered with African and Indian scientists and communities, establishing robust clinics and labs equipped to drive science forward and define a contextually relevant research agenda.

In many ways, the longstanding commitment of PEPFAR, USAID, IAVI and our tremendous global network of partners to highly effective and fair global research collaboration set important precedents for how international research collaborations can deliver powerful progress in addressing global infectious disease threats. ADVANCE has demonstrated the value of strengthening research capacity in countries heavily impacted by HIV and helped foster the careers of numerous young scientists so that they are fully capable of guiding their own countries’ efforts to respond to HIV and other emerging infectious disease threats.

The reduction in US government funding that has affected IAVI and so many other organizations is a significant obstacle to achieving an end to the public health threats that our work addresses, but our commitment to our mission is steadfast. IAVI will continue to actively advance the critically needed scientific research for vaccine and antibody development for HIV, and the development of vaccines against tuberculosis and emerging infectious diseases.  

In this era of destruction of HIV care and treatment programs, we know that our efforts to create an HIV vaccine are needed more than ever. Our work, which will continue to build on the achievements of the ADVANCE program, must continue with renewed urgency. We will stand firm in our long-term commitment to advance the research and development of the preventive technologies that have the power to protect all of us, and especially the most vulnerable, from the world’s most devastating diseases.