CONRAD
CONRAD exists to facilitate the rapid development of safe, acceptable, affordable products and methods that provide contraception and/or prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS and other infections. It accomplishes this by nurturing promising research in institutions worldwide, engaging in pre-clinical research, conducting clinical trials, partnering with private industry to get new products on the market, collaborating with other agencies, foundations, and non-governmental organizations, and training investigators throughout the world in pre-clinical and clinical research technologies. Its broad scope, global network, and focus on reproductive health enables it to help to ensure that the emerging and changing needs of women and men in under-resourced parts of the world are acted on in swift and prudent ways. CONRAD and Auritec are collaborating with funding from the USAID to develop intravaginal microbicide rings that release the anti-retrovirals tenofovir and UC781.