Turning the Tide Against HIV/AIDS

"HIV/AIDS is the greatest health crisis of our time. Its defeat requires the cooperation of the entire global community…Our country and other nations around the world are working to bring new hope to those suffering with HIV/AIDS and contribute to a healthier future for people around the world."

President George W. Bush
December 1, 2004

The United States and the European Union (EU) continue to strengthen their cooperation to combat the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. In the June 2004 joint U.S.-EU Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis, the United States and the European Union reasserted our shared commitment to combat AIDS, including through:

• Support for the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS;

• Ensuring resources from the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis are available to countries most severely affected by the disease;

• Cooperating on amending World Trade Organization rules in accordance with our groundbreaking agreement on intellectual property rights and public health;

• Supporting and accelerating the development of vaccines and technologies to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases; and

• Working to promote donor coordination and civil society and private-sector involvement in the fight against AIDS.

President Bush is leading a global effort to combat HIV/AIDS through his historic $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and his commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, to which the United States has pledged $2.12 billion, or 36 percent of all pledges through 2008. The substantial U.S. contribution to the Global Fund serves as both an invitation and a challenge to the rest of the international community to join in our commitment. The Emergency Plan and other U.S. efforts were achieved in close in-country coordination with EU and other donors through the UNAIDS/World Health Organizaation "Three Ones" framework.

On June 10, 2004, President Bush and his G-8 counterparts endorsed the establishment of a Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (GHAVE), a virtual consortium to accelerate HIV vaccine development by enhancing coordination, information sharing, and collaboration globally. President Bush is fulfilling his commitment to the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise strategic plan through the establishment of a new, virtual HIV Vaccine Research and Development Center, in addition to the one at the National Institutes of Health under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). First-year funding through the Department of Health and Human Services for HIV/AIDS immunology at the center is expected to be $14.4 million, and the President’s budget for FY2006 includes $48 million. The new center is a key component of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise.

The U.S. and the EU also collaborate on HIV vaccine development through clinical trials of candidate HIV vaccines developed with EuroVac and European-based pharmaceutical firms, as well as on the development of topical microbicides for the prevention of HIV infection through the Integrated Preclinical/Clinical Program for HIV Topical Microbicides (IPCP-HTM). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the European Commission Directorate General for Research will hold a follow-up meeting in Barcelona on June 2-4, 2005.

The United States invested $452 million of the global total of approximately $650 million in public and private funding for HIV vaccine development in FY2004 and will provide approximately $507 million in FY2005 and over $600 million in FY2006. Of this amount, the U.S. provided $10 million in FY2004 to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to foster integration of HIV vaccine development with EU researchers.