Donor Spotlight: Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

IAVI Europe attends Dutch PDP annual event in 2018 (Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands).

IAVI recognizes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (BZ) for its continued support for the development of HIV vaccines and other prevention tools, as part of its commitment to provide women, girls, and other groups at high risk of HIV infection with effective and accessible tools for HIV prevention, treatment, and care. IAVI applauds the ministry’s continued leadership in fighting HIV/AIDS and in working to improve the health and human rights of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

BZ and IAVI have a long-standing collaboration that dates back to 1999 when the Netherlands joined the U.K. government in providing the earliest government support for a new public-private partnership initiative. Generous support from the Dutch government through the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade & Development has helped IAVI to achieve and facilitate significant progress in HIV/AIDS vaccine research, novel international partnerships across the public and private sector, capacity building, and community engagement, particularly in eastern and southern Africa and India, to help accelerate the research.

Currently, through the Product Development Partnerships Fund (PDP III), the ministry supports IAVI HIV vaccine research programs through 2020. The PDP III Fund aims to develop cheaper and more effective preventive drugs and diagnostic tools for poverty-related diseases that are common in low- and middle-income countries, but that hold little interest for the regular pharmaceutical industry. The PDP III Fund has also cultivated ongoing IAVI strategic collaborations with Dutch private sector companies Janssen Vaccines and Batavia Biosciences as well as with Dutch academic researchers at the Amsterdam Medical Centre and Erasmus Medical Centre.

Dutch support has helped IAVI in groundbreaking research into powerful antibodies that can target a broader diversity of HIV subtypes. Today these antibodies are a major focus in research, including for the development of novel HIV vaccines, as exemplified by the start of a first-of-its-kind candidate heading into clinical trials. These antibodies are also being explored in clinical studies as novel products for HIV prevention, research, and cure. Additionally, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade & Development recently supported the soon to be released IAVI video ethnography project, “Through Our Eyes: Women’s Perspectives on HIV and Life in Kenya.” The video, as part of IAVI’s community-based research, informs product developers, donors, public health audiences, and policy makers about the needs and everyday lives of women behind the statistics by documenting lives of young women in Kenya and South Africa.

IAVI is grateful for the critical Dutch government institutional support and proud to continue to work together toward a vaccine and a world without AIDS. Learn more about IAVI’s generous funders.