Much progress made by the GAP-f working group in recent months

by | May 31, 2018

The Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations (GAP-f) — an evolving collaboration among a number of partner organizations — has continued to develop in 2018 and has announced some recent key accomplishments:

New website

The GAP-f website has been launched, which brings together key information on paediatric drug optimization and aims to be the place to go for updates in this broad area of work. The website includes links to guidance (such as the PADO list of priority paediatric ARVs and the IATT paediatric ARV formulary), important peer-reviewed publications, and past and upcoming events.

 

 

Papers published in JIAS and the Lancet

Two peer-reviewed commentaries recently published by the GAP-f outline pre- and post-approval activities coordinated by the GAP-f, key features of the GAP-f and its phased implementation, and future opportunities for change that will contribute to ensuring rapid development and uptake of key paediatric drugs in age-appropriate formulations:

  • “Shortening the decade-long gap between adult and paediatric drug formulations: a new framework based on the HIV experience in low- and middle-income countries,” published in JIAS in February. This paper is part of a supplement on “Paediatric and Adolescent HIV and the Sustainable Development Goals: the road ahead to 2030,” convened by CIPHER and guest-edited by Douglas Webb, Chewe Luo, and Lucie Cluver. It is available here.
  • “Catalysing the development and introduction of paediatric drug formulations for children living with HIV: a new global collaborative framework for action,” published in The Lancet HIV in early May. It is available here.

Webinar hosted

On April 24, the AIDS Free Working Group co-chairs hosted a webinar among Vatican meeting participants and other key stakeholders to provide an update on their efforts to monitor implementation of the Rome Action Plan and to allow those who made commitments to provide updates. The webinar showed that activities are ongoing on the majority of action points. An overall assessment of implementation status across the Action Plan will be performed to identify any significant gaps.

A recording of the webinar is available upon request to Tamar Gabelnick (tgabelnick@pedaids.org).

 

 

Satellite session to be held at AIDS 2018

At the upcoming 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018), GAP-f partners will be hosting a satellite session to present GAP-f concepts and work outcomes so far. The session – to be held Monday, July 23, 10:15-12:15, in Hall 11B of the RAI Convention Center – will include perspectives from different disease angles and stakeholders. More information will be circulated closer to the conference.

PFSCM’s role in GAP-f

In 2017, PFSCM joined this newly formed working group that builds on global efforts to promote a faster, more efficient, more focused approach to paediatric formulation development. Wesley Kreft, PFSCM’s Director of Global Supply Chain, serves as an advisor to the GAP-f initiative in his role as co-chair of the ARV Procurement Working Group (APWG). PFSCM is also part of the team that has prepared and published the IATT Optimal Formulary List of Paediatric ARVs.

Read more about the GAP-f in a post from January on this blog.