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The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
IAVI was constituted in 1995 in the USA as a non-governmental organisation sponsored by various US foundations and donors and is headed by Dr Seth Berkley.
IAVI was founded out of a judgement that the global effort towards a preventive vaccine was in trouble, following a 1994 decision not to proceed with US efficacy trials for gp120 vaccines. It has lobbied the US government, other G8 countries, intergovernmental organisations including the World Bank and UN agencies and entered into working agreements with the European Union, South Africa, India, China, Brazil and other countries. It has equally sought to engage with corporations and community organisations, with formal partnerships agreed between IAVI and agencies in a number of countries including Britain's National AIDS Trust.
One key idea that it has promoted is the creation of a guaranteed and credible market for vaccines, by securing the promise of major loans to buy any proven vaccine on behalf of governments of countries that are in the greatest need. Such loans could be repaid from future savings on humanitarian aid and need not add to the debts of the countries worst affected by HIV.
IAVI funds research specifically directed at vaccines which would be appropriate for countries where the need is greatest and the resources most limited.
By 2001 it had funds and pledges totalling more than US $230 million towards a fundraising target of US $550 million needed to fund vaccine development work plan through to the year 2007, following its Scientific Blueprint: 2000. The largest single funder so far has been the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Other major supporters include the Rockefeller, Sloan and Starr Foundations, UNAIDS the World Bank, and a number of governments. These include the UK (through the Department for International Development), Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA (through USAID).
IAVI publishes a scientific newsletter, IAVI Report, and makes its publications freely available through its website, www.iavi.org.