Workshop On Aids Vaccine Research In India

Workshop on AIDS Vaccine Research in India Dear Colleague, The Global Science Academy (GSA) Basti UP (India) is organizing a “Workshop on AIDS Vaccine Research in India” at Basti on the occasion of the World AIDS Day (December 01), 2009 and December 02, 2009. Besides commemoration of World AIDS Day on first day (December 01, 2009), the GSA will organize “Workshop on AIDS Vaccine Research in India: Role of Researchers and Public Organizations”. GSA is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to achieve the goal of an overall science oriented education and sustainable future of human-kind with a national spirit. Membership & Fellowship of the Academy invited (Pl. ask for form) Technical Information and Specific Objectives of the Workshop: The pre-consultation workshop on “AIDS vaccine Research in India: Role of Researchers and Public Organizations” aimed at exploring:

a) Structure and systems for engaging AIDS Vaccine Researchers & Public Organizations and stakeholders to stimulate two-way innovative-dialogue: The major objective of the workshop is to accelerate the development of a safe, effective and accessible preventive AIDS vaccine by engaging AIDS-Vaccine researchers and public organizations to strengthen AIDS Vaccine research in India by stimulating two-way dialogue with technical and policy background of Indian government & significant input of stakeholders and research partners. In India majority of NGOs/ PLHIV networks as well as other service providing organizations have either no idea of AIDS vaccine efforts or negligible understanding of the same. Also, researchers involved in developing the AIDS vaccine have limited knowledge of various issues involved. The GSA will try to fulfill the gap by fostering dialogue upon it. Since National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) & Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to accelerate the development of an AIDS vaccine for India, the GSA will provide its a platform where participants could discuss upon access of the information provision regarding recent developments in AIDS Vaccine research including activities of the ‘National Advisory Board’, ‘Gender Advisory Board’, ‘Community Advisory Board’, ‘NGO Working Group’ ‘Ethics Committees’ as were already in place in India due to efforts of IAVI India, NACO & ICMR in addition to available information on the AIDS vaccine programme and prevention technologies. The intended audiences/participants will be the Non-government organizations (NGOs) in India delivering programmes on AIDS prevention and care including PLHIV (People Living with HIV) networks as well as AIDS Vaccine researchers belonging to such Institutions and others. The participants will be expected to translate the key message gained to the communities for their likely participation in clinical trials. b) Fostering dialogue between target audience and stakeholders in vaccine research and to discuss its ethical considerations:

Opinion of NGOs, PLHIV networks, scientists, clinicians, ethicists, lawyers, gender experts, activists will be taken into consideration in addition to government and UN agencies, to achieve the workshop objectives. India has the history of AIDS vaccine trials primarily on uninfected male and female population and afterwards on high risk groups of Sex Workers (SWs)/ Men having Sex with Men (MSM) and Trans-genders (TG) groups. The lesions learned from these trials indicate that HIV infection and AIDS still a condition of highly stigmatization, require extensive preparatory activities with all levels of society and different stakeholders, to conduct AIDS vaccine trial. GSA with its proposed events will try its best to simultaneously address ethical Issues in this Epidemiological Research to ensure public engagement. There was felt a great need to look at ethics in health research from a South East Asia perspective because conducting biomedical research may fail to reflect the cultural and social values of those from the developing countries like India who participate in it. ICMR ethical guidelines along with preliminary exploration of ethical issues in AIDS vaccine trials which were instrumental for smooth clearance of protocols will be addressed. The documents of the AAV and MVA-based vaccine Phase I trials as were approved by the Institutional Ethics Committees, Institutional Scientific Committees, Drug Controller General of India, Central Ethics Committee, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee and the Health Ministry’s Screening Committee and the approval process framework and lessons learned will likely to be shared towards strengthening vaccine clinical research in India. IAVI and other vaccine developers, regulatory and ethical bodies will simultaneously be invited to discuss on how the approval process could be streamlined. Efforts will be made towards enactment of National AIDS Vaccine Plan in India, a wanting need of the hour. c) enhancing community participation by addressing issues & concerns involved in clinical trails of AIDS vaccine in India: Concerns were expressed that the mistrust generated by some previous unethical clinical trials in India and ignorance, stigma and discrimination about HIV/AIDS might make it more difficult to set up trials and to recruit volunteers. Qualitative research was conducted to understand the concerns of stakeholders. Community preparedness work was also undertaken in the country to address these concerns towards clinical trial process but leaving scope to address the issue to achieve the desired goal. The Government of India has always stressed that successful and ethical clinical trials for AIDS Vaccine require the informed and active participation of local communities and support from within those communities. The proposed agenda will help in informed community participation by disseminating scientific and technical information to the grass root levels ranging from the understanding of risks and benefits of trial participation, rights of participants and the potential use of all clinical trial samples, in concise, intelligible and culture-sensitive ways. Workshop aims to achieve below mentioned outcomes: Greater engagement, with significantly built capacities, and increased coordination within NGOs, PLHIV networks, communities as well as researchers and stakeholders in AIDS- vaccine Research & Development programme in India in a supportive environment and to reduce controversies and gap in terms of information and service accessibility.

What participants are expected to contribute?: Participants are expected to contribute their Abstracts on above mentioned topics viz. a) Structure and systems for engaging AIDS Vaccine Researchers & Public Organizations and stakeholders to stimulate two-way innovative-dialogue. b) Fostering dialogue between target audience and stakeholders in vaccine research and to discuss its ethical considerations. c) enhancing community participation by addressing issues & concerns involved in clinical trails of AIDS vaccine in India In the proceedings abstracts will be published along with workshop recommendations, after interactive sessions. Participants are advised to go through the background information as mentioned against given topics before writing their contribution(s). Deadlines: Registration: Nov. 25, 2009 Abstract submission: Nov. 20, 2009 Notification of acceptance: Nov. 25, 2009 Full Paper: At the time of Workshop For more information on workshop, please refer the following web link: http://gsaindia.org.in/world_aids_day.pdf or Contact: Dr. Anil Pratap Singh Secretary & CEO, Global Science Academy, Basti (UP) India. Tele-fax No.: +91 5542 247186, 287060 Mobile No.: (India) 9336785696 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] www.gsaindia.org.in , www.ngogateway.org/gsa