Global partners that are committed to ending paediatric AIDS have come together to call on countries to rapidly scale up access to optimal, child-friendly HIV treatment for infants and children. The partners include the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNAIDS, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Unitaid, the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently gave tentative approval for the first generic formulation of dolutegravir (DTG) 10 mg dispersible tablets. This approval was the result of an innovative partnership between Unitaid, CHAI and ViiV Healthcare, together with generic suppliers, which accelerated the timeline of development by several years.

This now means that WHO-recommended, preferred first line DTG-based antiretroviral treatment is now available in more affordable and child-friendly generic formulations for young children and infants as young as four weeks of age and weighing more than 3 kg.

Suppliers have indicated their ability to meet global scale-up ambitions. Accurate forecasts of demand are critical to inform production planning and delivery timelines.

The partners are committed to support national governments as they develop rapid transition plans from existing suboptimal HIV treatment to DTG-based treatment for infants and children, including advocacy for political commitment, mobilising international and domestic resources, new policies and guidelines, managing medicine supply, distribution and stock, training healthcare workers and sensitising and engaging affected communities to ensure demand and treatment literacy for children living with HIV and their caregivers in order to ensure rapid uptake of these new formulations.