Africa is an Essential Partner in the Research and Development of an HIV Vaccine

Despite significant advances in HIV antiretroviral treatment, and proven efficacy of HIV prevention options, an effective and affordable HIV vaccine is still necessary for the elimination of HIV, particularly in Africa. Furthermore, viral and host factors unique to the African continent provide a strong scientific rationale for local vaccine discovery efforts. Several key challenges hamper Africa's vaccine research and production capabilities. These include inadequate funding for African-led research, equipment and infrastructure challenges, lack of preclinical evaluation capacity, limited manufacturing facilities for clinical-grade vaccines, and a shortage of scientists with specialized laboratory, bioinformatics and biostatistics training. A recently established African-led consortium seeks to strengthen African HIV vaccine contributions by providing support, training and funding to address these gaps by strengthening discovery research and conducting early phase clinical trials of existing and novel Africa-derived vaccine candidates while strengthening African manufacturing infrastructure and capacity. Constant and robust community and stakeholder engagement will be key to ensuring the success of the consortiums' efforts in providing sustainable vaccine development, manufacturing and clinical testing in Africa. Given the magnitude of the HIV burden in Africa, with largely undescribed viral and host diversity, it is vital that HIV vaccine discovery evolves to include the underutilized scientific expertise and capacity on the African continent. Recent interruptions in the funding of consortia in Africa threaten this type of progress and can derail progress in vaccine discovery.