Launched at the 2004 International Microbicides Conference, the African Microbicides Advocacy Group (AMAG) is a regional network that leads a co-ordinated African engagement in setting and moving forward the international microbicides advocacy and research agenda. AMAG works towards the availability of, access to, and use of, an expanded range of woman-initiated HIV prevention options. It seeks to advance the recognition of the legitimacy of African women’s voices, responsiveness to, and respect for, African realities and priorities.

www.global-campaign.org/amag.htm

Founded in 1995, the non-profit AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) seeks to create a favourable policy and social environment for accelerated ethical research and eventual global delivery of AIDS vaccines and other prevention methods as part of a comprehensive response to the pandemic. This work is guided by the following principles: Translate complex scientific ideas to communities AND translate community needs and perceptions to the scientific community; Manage expectations; Hold agencies accountable for accelerating ethical research and development; Expand international partnerships to ensure local relevance and a global movement; Ensure that policy and advocacy are based on thorough research and evidence; Build coalitions, working groups and think tanks for specific issues; and, Develop and widely disseminate high-quality, user-friendly materials.

www.avac.org

The Alliance for Microbicide Development is a global nonprofit organization founded in 1998 whose mission is to speed the development of safe, effective, and affordable microbicides to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Toward fulfillment of its mission, the Alliance concentrates its work in four main areas; research, monitoring, and analysis, information, education, and communication, convening and evidence-based advocacy and collaboration.The Alliance's core activities are monitoring and analyzing the microbicide pipeline through systematic survey and ongoing examination of and communication with the field; analyzing, creating dialogue, and reporting on critical issues; convening meetings and task groups to exchange information and explore specific issues; clarifying and influencing regulatory processes through public comment, ongoing dialogue, and analysis; racking and analyzing investment in microbicide development ;raising awareness about microbicides and providing a neutral, objective evidence base for decision-making, public policy, and advocacy ; brokering collaborations among Alliance participants, colleagues, and allied networks; trouble-shooting, problem-solving, and monitoring events threatening the field and taking leadership positions on issues affecting the microbicide field.

www.microbicide.org

CONRAD exists to facilitate the rapid development of safe, acceptable, affordable products and methods that provide contraception and/or prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS and other infections. They accomplish this by nurturing promising research in institutions worldwide; engaging in pre-clinical research; conducting clinical trials; partnering with private industry to get new products on the market; collaborating with other agencies, foundations, and non-governmental organizations and training investigators throughout the world in pre-clinical and clinical research technologies. Our work does not begin in the laboratory or even in the scientist's mind, but with the needs of women and men everywhere who are struggling for a better life for themselves and their families. As a multifaceted organization involved in all aspects of product development, we place high priority on those needs, doing much of our work in real settings, with real people. Our broad scope, global network and focus on reproductive health enables us to help to ensure that the emerging and changing needs of women and men in under-resourced parts of the world are acted on in swift and prudent ways.

www.conrad.org

The Centre for the AIDS Program of Research (CAPRISA) in South Africa was founded by the Universities of Natal, Cape Town, and the Western Cape, the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. CAPRISA's goal is to develop and undertake globally relevant and locally responsive research that contributes to understanding HIV pathogenesis and epidemiology as well as HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. CAPRISA also works to build local research infrastructure through cores of expertise and to provide training through research fellowships tenable both in South Africa, the United States of America and elsewhere.

www.caprisa.org

Formed in 1971, Family Health International (FHI) is among the largest and most established non-profit organizations active in international public health with a mission to improve lives worldwide through research, education, and services in family health.
FHI manages research and field activities in more than 70 countries to meet the public health needs of some of the world's most vulnerable people. They work with a wide variety of partners including governmental and nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, community groups, and the private sector. Through their global reach and local action they help countries and communities to; prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections and care for those affected by them; improve people's access to quality reproductive health services, especially safe, effective, and affordable family planning methods; improve the health of women and children, especially those who live in resource-constrained settings.

www.fhi.org

The Global Campaign for Microbicides (GCM) is a broad-based, international effort to build support among policymakers, opinion leaders, and the general public for increased investment into microbicides and other user-controlled prevention methods. Through advocacy, policy analysis, and social science research, the Campaign's diverse network of over 285 NGOs works to accelerate product development, facilitate widespread access and use, and protect the needs and interests of users, especially women. The Campaign Secretariat is housed at PATH, an international, nonprofit organization that improves the health of people around the world. Specifically, the goals of the Campaign are to: Raise awareness and mobilise political support for increased funding for microbicide research, female condom and cervical barrier methods; Create a supportive policy environment for the timely development, introduction and use of new prevention technologies; and, Ensure that as science proceeds, the public interest is protected and the rights and interests of trial participants, users, and communities are fully represented and respected.

www.global-campaign.org

Global Health Strategies is an international consulting company working with the public, private and not-for-profit sectors to ensure the development and worldwide delivery of health products, technologies and information. Global Health Strategies specializes in; communications, resource mobilization, research & policy analysis and organizational & product development.

www.ghstrat.com

The HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) is a worldwide collaborative clinical trials network that develops and tests the safety and efficacy of primarily non-vaccine interventions designed to prevent the transmission of HIV. Established in 1999 and refunded in 2006 by the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the HPTN carries out its mission through a strong network of expert scientists and investigators from more than two dozen international sites partnered with a leadership group comprised of three U.S.-based institutions. The strengths of the HPTN include; leadership by experts in the prevention sciences, coordinated domestic-international research agenda, multi-disciplinary study teams of behavioural, clinical, epidemiological, laboratory, operations, and statistical researchers, capability to conduct cross-cultural comparisons among different host and viral populations, emphasis on community involvement in all aspects of the research process, from trial development through implementation and emphasis on ethical guidelines in research.

www.hptn.org

Ibis Reproductive Health aims to improve women’s reproductive autonomy, choices, and health worldwide. Ibis accomplishes their mission by conducting original clinical and social science research, leveraging existing research, producing educational resources, and promoting policies and practices that support sexual and reproductive rights and health. Ibis works closely with advocates to conceptualize research questions and to help ensure the results of our research lead to positive change in women’s lives. They focus on improving access to abortion, expanding contraceptive choices, advancing prevention strategies for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and linking reproductive health and HIV prevention, care, and treatment.

www.ibisreproductivehealth.org

The International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) is a non-profit, product development partnership working to accelerate the development and availability of vaginal microbicides to help women in developing countries protect themselves from HIV. IPM is committed to providing women with an affordable and self-initiated HIV-prevention strategy to reduce new infections globally. Microbicides represent an essential component of an integrated and comprehensive global response to the HIV epidemic. IPM promotes the rapid development and delivery of a safe and effective microbicide by pioneering a "best-practices" approach to: screen compounds and design optimal formulations; develop clinical trial sites and conduct clinical trials; identify appropriate regulatory pathways for microbicide products; and establish manufacturing and distribution capacity to ensure rapid access as soon as a microbicide becomes available. IPM, based in Silver Spring, Md. (US), also funds, co-funds or leverages resources to support the research of other microbicide developers.

www.ipm-microbicides.org

Since its creation in 2005, International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA) has seen significant growth and success. Convened by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, the Canadian AIDS Society, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project and the Global Campaign for Microbicides, IRMA is currently a network numbering over 600 advocates, policymakers and leading scientists from 50 countries on six continents (indicated by the countries in colour above) working to advance a robust rectal microbicide research and development agenda. IRMA is committed to the following goals; to advocate for accelerated research, development and access to safe, effective and acceptable rectal microbicides; to promote rectal safety studies on all viable vaginal microbicide candidates; to support, where appropriate, the research of other new prevention technologies, such as male circumcision, vaccines and oral prevention (PrEP), and to promote existing prevention methods such as male and female condoms as part of a range of prevention options; to serve as a central forum for exchange, debate, and networking on rectal microbicides; and to convene diverse perspectives and scientific disciplines to improve understanding and action around rectal microbicide research and development.

www.rectalmicrobicides.org/

The Microbicides Development Programme (MDP) is a partnership set up; to determine the scientific mechanisms underlying the activity of microbicidal agents; to conduct pre-clinical evaluation of potential microbicides; to undertake Phase I and Phase II (if appropriate) studies of new products; to undertake feasibility studies and Phase II microbicide trials as a prelude to Phase III studies; to undertake in Africa a multinational Phase III, randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial of candidate compounds; to address issues raised by the availability of an effective microbicide in relation to their widespread introduction, through collaborations with behavioural scientists, health economists, social marketing specialists and mathematical modellers; and to explore issues surrounding affordable microbicidal products for the developing world, including by developing relationships with pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

www.mdp.mrc.ac.uk

The Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) was established in 2006 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), as the newest of six NIAID-funded HIV/AIDS clinical trials networks. With co-funding from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, both NIH institutes, the MTN brings together international investigators and community and industry partners who are devoted to reducing the sexual transmission of HIV through the development and evaluation of microbicides, working within a unique infrastructure specifically designed to facilitate research required to support licensure of topical microbicide products for widespread use.MTN is guided by an agenda that aims to complement rather than duplicate the research programs of its global research partners. It also seeks participation by and collaborations with representatives of diverse scientific disciplines related to HIV prevention, as well as from the lay communities where MTN trials are being conducted.

www.mtnstopshiv.org

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. For more than 50 years, NIAID research has led to new therapies, vaccines, diagnostic tests, and other technologies that have improved the health of millions of people in the United States and around the world.

www3.niaid.nih.gov

The Population Council conducts research worldwide to improve policies, programs, and products in three areas: HIV and AIDS; poverty, gender, and youth; and reproductive health. The goal of the HIV and AIDS program is ambitious: to arrest the spread of the HIV epidemic in developing countries and to enable people to mitigate or eliminate the impact of HIV on their own health, and on their families, communities, and societies. To achieve these goals, the Council brings its wide array of capabilities, including basic research in immunology; the development and introduction of an effective microbicide; social science and health-related research to understand better the social, behavioural, and biomedical aspects of HIV and AIDS; the formulation of evidence-based policies; and the development, evaluation, and scale-up of effective service-delivery models.

www.popcouncil.org

ReProtect's Mission is to reduce unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS, by providing the most effective and innovative products to protect the reproductive health of women and men throughout the world. ReProtect, Inc. is the first company to develop a vaginal microbicide that works by maintaining the natural environment of the female reproductive tract. ReProtect's products are among the first to be tested for their ability to be contraceptive and protect against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) without the use of hormones or potentially damaging detergents. ReProtect's goal is to provide safe, reliable and effective contraceptive microbicides.

www.reprotect.com