On July 14 and 15 2008, the second Australian Symposium on Microbicides and HIV Biomedical Prevention was held at the University of Sydney. There were 58 participants in attendance over the two days with representatives from (state) government, community, industry, and research.

The Symposium aimed to:

• Provide an update on global microbicides and PrEP research, including emerging methodological challenges;
• Identify the possible PrEP research outcomes and plan for different scenarios;
• Identify research questions that will be unanswered by forthcoming phase III trial results;
• Consider issues of gender in the context of biomedical HIV prevention;
• Situate Australian research in a global context;
• Indentify ways to conduct or support microbicides research in the Asia/Pacific region;
• Discuss the role of community and civil society in microbicide research; and,
• Establish objectives for a microbicides committee and ongoing work.

AFAO’s policy position on HIV biomedical prevention is that research should take place in partnership with communities, information should be shared in a transparent and accountable manner. Any potential implementation of biomedical prevention technologies, should efficacy be established, must be very carefully negotiated with affected communities and positioned as an adjunct, rather than a replacement, to existing prevention interventions. Facilitating multi-sectoral conversation about biomedical prevention modalities is thus an important component of this work, and co-chairing the 2008 Australian Biomedical Prevention and Microbicides Symposium with the NCHECR was intended to realise this goal.

Download the Report on the Australian Biomedical Prevention and Microbicides Symposium (PDF, 8p, small file)