AIDS 2026: Programme highlights to look out for

20 July 2026. Related: News.

Simon Collins, HIV i-Base

The AIDS 2026 conference is being held from 26-30 July 2026 in Rio de Janeiro with an exciting programme that is already posted online. [1]

Introduction

Held every two years, the International AIDS Conference organised by the International AIDS Society (IAS) is the largest international HIV meeting, with good community engagement in a broad programme. In addition to covering basic and clinical science, this conference has a strong focus on social science, key populations, treatment access and global health policy.

The programme consists of over 150 sessions including plenary and other oral presentations, with over 2400 posters. These sessions will also be available online for registered delegates.

Hopefully IAS will also provide early open access for at least some key sessions, including the opening ceremony (speakers still not announced but which will include a key community talk), and the closing ceremony, which includes rapporteur summaries of the most important research (with community tracks covered by UK activist Susan Cole-Haley). [2, 3]

The official theme of AIDS 2026 is #RethinkRebuildRise, and more than 200 activities will be hosted in the Global Village, including workshops, informal talks, performances and exhibitions – showing diverse community responses to HIV.

It is also appropriate to bring the conference back to Brazil as the country has a proud and innovative history of progressive early approaches to HIV prevention and treatment. Together with India and Thailand, Brazil was one of the few countries to challenge global drug patents by manufacturing their own generic versions of the latest drugs, whilst also making them affordable.

As an upper-middle-income country, despite having high prevalence, Brazil is routinely excluded from access to either affordable generics or sufficiently discounted prices. More than 830,000 people living with HIV live in Brazil and as with many other countries in South America, Brazil is also a country where HIV cases continue to increase in some key populations, showing the urgency of their leading role in demanding affordable access to injectable PrEP across South America.

UNAIDS also recently recognised Brazil for eliminating vertical transmission – and being the first country with a population >100 million people to achieve this. [4]

Programme highlights

A selected summary of likely expected highlights is included below, many of which are oral late-breakers, with the most recent results. This is only a snapshot selection to give a flavour of what to expect and the meeting will include far more surprises than can be covered here or reported afterwards.

Hyperlinks are to the abstract pages but the embargo for the contents of all studies will be lifted on Monday 27 July.

New drugs in the HIV pipeline

AIDS 2026 will include updated results on many of the pipeline drugs presented earlier in the year at CROI.

• 48-week results from two phase 3 studies of once-weekly oral islatravir/lenacapavir (ISL/LEN) – both late-breakers. [5, 6]
• 6-monthly injectable combination of lenacapavir + bNAbs – phase 2 study with 104-week results. Two phase 3 studies for this combination have also just been listed. [7, 42, 43]
• Using the bNAb lotivibart (N6LS, VH109) with long-acting cabotegravir will also be covered in a poster. [44]
• Once-weekly oral combination of islatravir plus ulonivirine – phase 2 study. [8]
• Five posters presenting additional results from the ARTISTRY-1 and -2 studies using daily oral bictegravir/lenacapavir (BIC/LEN) to simplify ART including data on baseline resistance. [9]
• Results of once-daily doravirine/islatravir (DOR/ISL) with M184V mutation at 96 weeks. Subgroup analyses from once-daily DOR/ISL will also be presented from the phase 3 naive and switch studies. [10, 11, 12]
• US researcher Monica Gandhi will also give an overview talk about advances in long-acting ART. [13]

PrEP

• Dozens of studies will be presented on injectable lenacapavir PrEP including follow-up from the PURPOSE 1 and 2 studies and real-world data on access programmes, including in the US and Africa.
• Dozens of studies will also be presented on all aspects of injectable cabotegravir PrEP including the outcomes of short injection delays.
• Practical issues of long-acting injections, including a mouse study on drug interactions of both lenacapavir and cabotegravir with fentanyl. [14]
• Several posters present PK and resistance studies on MK-8527 – now named alimatravir. This is the investigational oral PrEP that only needs to be taken once a month. Likely one of the headline studies will be a modelled analysis supporting mass production at US$15 a year. [15]
• Early results from a randomised phase 2 using dual bNAbs for PrEP in women in South Africa. [16]

An expert overview of PrEP research will also be given by Raphael Landovitz [17]

Global access and the international funding crisis

Responses to the crisis in global funding will be a dominant theme and will be included in many sessions. For example, five short talks and a Q&A will include private funders with Anne Aslett from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Yogan Pillay from the Gates Foundation and Carmen Pérez Casas from Unitaid. [18]

The real-world impact of PEPFAR cuts will also be covered in at least 15 presentations.

These will include the effect on HIV treatment for children in several meta-analyses on HIV programmes across Africa. [19, 20, 21]

However it is disconcerting to see that the US government is included as a commercial exhibitor at the conference to actively promote their America First policy, given this generated much of the current crisis by withdrawing international funding in the most destructive way. [22]

The balance involves the need for commercial stands to fund the meeting, and as a precedent, the South African government also exhibited whilst it was denying access to ART.

An open letter to the IAS as the conference organisers on their decision to allow the US Government to be included has been launched by activist Sandro Mattioli. The letter can be endorsed here by individuals and organisations and viewed here.

Cure-related research

The programme will include many talks and sessions on HIV-related cure research, including from South African researcher Thumi Ndung’u, and two new cures cases from stem-cell transplant – one from Germany and the other from the US, presented in an oral abstract session on cure and control. This session also includes a study on HIV post-treatment control by Asier Sáez-Cirión. [23, 24]

Another symposium includes four talks (two from the UK) looking at other new approaches to HIV remission, including CAR-T and gene therapies. [25]

The role of bNAbs in cure-related research will also be covered in a plenary talk by Michel Nussenzweig and a symposium and panel discussion chaired by Sarah Fidler. [26, 27]

Three posters are also included from the UK RIO study which uses bNAbs to control HIV viraemia after interrupting ART. [28, 29, 30]

IAS also sponsors an all-day pre-conference workshop on global access to cure-related research. [31]

Key populations – transgender care, harm reduction and chemsex

The conference’s tracks D and E cover social science and systems, including the broader issues relating to key populations. Across all tracks, almost 100 studies focus on transgender health, including a plenary talk on ensuring access to gender-affirming care. [32]

Several sessions cover harm reduction, including for chemsex, in many regions and countries. [33, 34]

The are more than 20 abstracts on chemsex which is also covered in many sessions in the Global Village, including a call for action in Latin America and a workshop on chemsex and psychosis. [35, 36]

Other ART studies

Many other ART strategy studies will include randomised data on drugs that are already approved, perhaps reporting results in specific populations and an interesting randomised study of point-of-care viral load testing.

• The French BicDol study will report on efficacy of dolutegravir versus bictegravir triple regimens in people with high viral load. [37]
• The LATA study will report on injectable CAB-LA/RPV-LA compared to TLD in adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. [38]
• VOGUE compares dolutegravir/3TC to bictegravir/F/TAF. [39]
• Long-term results of B/F/TAF in children and adolescents in an international cohort. [40]
• Viral load tests improve outcomes in children, adolescents and young people in East Africa. [41]