IAVI's R&D team designs and develops HIV vaccine candidates and conducts vaccine trials and related epidemiological research in partnership with researchers across the globe.
Although the development of an effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection has proved enormously challenging, researchers have made remarkable progress toward that goal in recent years.
IAVI works with partners to advocate for the development of preventive AIDS vaccines as an essential component of a comprehensive response to the HIV pandemic.
IAVI is committed to ensuring that when HIV vaccines become available, they will be accessible and affordable to people in developing countries. The organization typically requires its partners in research and development to agree to a framework for affordability and availability that will ensure global access to future HIV vaccines.
IAVI collaborates with more than 100 academic, industry and government organizations around the world to research and develop AIDS vaccines and to advocate for the field.
Devising a vaccine that can elicit effective antibodies against HIV remains one of the greatest challenges of modern science. This is because HIV changes its genetic makeup (mutates) so fast that it continuously evades targeting by the immune response.