Sunnylands Summit: The Path Toward Ending HIV

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Topics: Global Health, Health & Wellness, Retreat, Retreat News, The Path Towards Ending HIV

On February 7-9, 2019, Sunnylands partnered with the International AIDS Society, the world’s largest association of HIV professionals with members from more than 180 countries, to host a three-day retreat titled “Sunnylands Summit: The Path Toward Ending HIV.”

This retreat convened thirty high-level stakeholder from the HIV scientific, product development, financing, and delivery communities for an intimate and vital discussion on prospects and requirements for developing a cure for HIV.  The group also considered how to ensure the widest possible distribution and access for a future cure.  While a cure will be essential worldwide, the primary focus of the retreat was the challenge of distribution in low and lower-middle income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

This retreat built on an earlier, landmark HIV retreat that was hosted at Sunnylands in 2013, when participants agreed that research toward a cure was a viable goal and focused on the development of public-private partnerships.  That retreat led to millions of dollars of new investment in cure research, as well as a series of follow-up activities and meetings.

Retreat discussions in 2019 were wide-ranging, and ultimately, invaluable to the goal of eventually developing and distributing a cure for HIV. Participants considered the necessary elements and modalities of a Target Product Profile, potential challenges and obstacles to distribution, financing, and lessons learned from other public health product launches. Participants also agreed to a series of necessary next steps to continue these critical conversations and move the field forward, including the decision to explore the creation of a public-private partnership to accelerate development of and access to an HIV cure.

Sunnylands was honored to play an important part in this vital dialogue and looks forward to continuing to support such discussions in the future.