PEPFAR

In his State of the Union address on January 28, 2003, President Bush announced the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR/Emergency Plan). The Emergency Plan is the largest commitment ever by any nation for an international health initiative dedicated to a single disease -- a five-year, $15 billion, multifaceted approach to combating the disease around the world.

Microbicides for HIV Prevention in the Draft PEPFAR Reauthorization Bill

The draft PEPFAR Reauthorization bill was released in January 2008 and it contains a new section on microbicides titled, 'Microbicide Research for Preventing Transmission of HIV and Other Diseases' which contains most of the key elements of the Microbicide Development Act.

The Draft PEPFAR bill:

1. Includes language to support access to safe and effective microbicides in developing countries when products become available, (P. 51, lines 11-19)
2. Includes language that would provide continuing treatment and care to participants in HIV prevention clinical trials who seroconvert during trials, (p. 53, lines 1-9)
3. Includes language that would better integrate microbicide research, development and eventual use into PEPFAR's prevention strategy (p. 22, lines 3-7)
4. Includes an entirely new section (sect. 204, starting on p. 38, line 3) titled 'Microbicide Research for Preventing Transmission of HIV and Other Diseases'.
   • This new section contains many of the elements of the MDA - a federal strategic plan, interagency coordination, "such sums," specific mention of NIH, AID, and CDC, etc.).
5. In addition, the draft bill adds a clause making "intensifying efforts to support the development of vaccines, microbicides, and other prevention technologies" one of the purposes of the bill (p. 18, lines 11-14)

For more information about PEPFAR and microbicides, please visit http://www.pepfar.gov/, or contact the Alliance.