HIV treatment trials

The management office has experience in running successful international clinical trials looking at new HIV treatment strategies.

Development of AntiRetroviral Therapy in Africa (DART) - Completed

DART was an open label randomised controlled clinical trial assessing feasible therapeutic approaches for resource limited settings: clinical monitoring only versus CD4 plus laboratory plus clinical monitoring, and structured treatment interruptions (STI) versus continuous therapy. Funding was provided by the UK Medical Research Council, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Rockefeller Foundation. This study was completed in 2010. 

Lablite

The Lablite Project is also known as Optimising Clinical Care, Treatment Strategies and Use of laboratories for ART Roll-out in Africa.

Lablite addresses economic, practical and operational issues around decentralising and increasing access to treatment for HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, in the context of a global economic crisis where funding sources are frozen or contracting. It aims to create a strong and relevant evidence base to inform national and international policy makers on how best to use the limited funds available to both maintain treatment for those who are already on it, and continue to increase coverage in line with the ‘Universal Access’ targets set by UN member states in 2006.

Short Pulse Anti Retroviral Therapy at HIV Seroconversion (SPARTAC)

SPARTAC was a randomised-controlled trial comparing three different strategies of intervention in patients recently infected with HIV, referred to as Primary HIV Infection (PHI). The main objective was to determine whether being treated at primary HIV infection for a limited duration delays damage to the immune system and consequently prolongs time to initiation of long-term anti-HIV therapy. It has now completed follow up and the results will be announced in the near future. The study is funded by the Wellcome Trust and is part of an international collaboration between Imperial College London, Oxford University, Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit UK and participating sites.