Highlighting Exceptional Efforts to Increase Access to Children’s HIV/AIDS Treatment.

On World AIDS Day 2015, members of the Global Pediatric Antiretroviral Commitment-to-Action launched two Public Recognition Awards that recognize exceptional efforts to improve the development and up-take of highest priority pediatric antiretroviral (ARV) drugs critically needed to save the lives of children living with HIV globally.

The first award acknowledged a pharmaceutical company (ViiV Healthcare) for making significant progress in accelerating the development and accessibility of optimal pediatric antiretrovirals (ARVs).

Nominations are now being accepted for the second award, which will acknowledge a country national program that has significantly accelerated uptake and registration of optimal pediatric ARVs. See details on this award, including eligibility and evaluation criteria, and nomination instructions here. Learn more about the second award and nominate a qualified candidate below.  

About the Commitment-to-Action:  The Commitment-to-Action brings together leading organizations to accelerate the development and introduction of new, high-priority pediatric ARV co-formulations for first- and second-line treatment by 2017.  Founding members include the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative (PHTI) – a collaboration of UNITAID, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, the Medicines Patent Pool and  the World Health Organization (as technical partner) – and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund).

Award 2:  National Programs 

Promoting in-Country Registration and Uptake of Highest Priority Pediatric ARVs

Download eligibility criteria and nomination form here

This Public Recognition Award will acknowledge a national program that has significantly accelerated the in-country uptake of optimal pediatric ARVs.  Pediatric ARVs will be considered optimal according to the extent to which they meet each of the optimal formulary criteria defined by the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) for Prevention and Treatment of HIV Infection in Pregnant Women, Mother and Children. The include: inclusion in WHO guidelines, allowing for dosing options, user-friendliness, optimizing supply management, availability in resource-limited settings, and comparative cost. Accelerating the uptake of drugs fulfilling more IATT criteria will be regarded more highly in the evaluation than accelerating the uptake of drugs fulfilling only a few of the criteria.

• Award Announcement:  World AIDS Day 2016 (December 1)
• Nomination Deadline:  September 1, 2016
• Eligibility criteria:  A national AIDS program that has made exceptional efforts to support the CTA objective of accelerating uptake of new, optimal pediatric formulations. These contributions must have occurred from December 2014 – present.
• Evaluation criteria:  National programs will be evaluated based on their contributions against the criteria as follow:

1. Assuming drug companies have submitted dossiers for registration, what efforts are underway for completing in-country registration of new optimal formulations, including a target date for registration and details on whether a waiver has been issued.
2. Whether orders have been placed for new, optimal formulations and if yes, when these orders were placed. Details on when in-country distribution and uptake is expected are also helpful.
3. Whether the country has developed a transition strategy for the uptake of new, optimal formulations.  If a strategy does exist, please provide it as an attachment with your nomination form.
4. BONUS: Whether the country has modified its guidelines revision cycle such that they are synchronized with the WHO guideline revisions.

• Selection Process:  A six-person panel consisting of representatives from the Commitment-to-Action will evaluate each of the nominees against the evaluation criteria listed below.
• Award:  The selected awardees will be publically recognized by members of the Commitment-to-Action consortium for their contributions to accelerating the development and accessibility of optimal pediatric antiretrovirals at a public event and/or through public statements and other external-facing communications surrounding World AIDS Day 2016 (December 1).  There is no financial element to this award.
• Nomination Process: Fill out the brief nomination form and submit to CTAAwards@r4d.org by September 1, 2016.  Self-nominations accepted.