HIV International Clinical Trials Research Management Office

The HIV Clinical Trial Research Management Office is part of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College and manage a number of large international research grants which include multi-centre clinical trials of HIV prevention technologies and treatment of HIV infection.

AfrEVacc

The African-European HIV Vaccine Development Network (AfrEVacc) is a multi-centre international three-year project funded by the European &Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). The project aims to develop a comprehensive network of institutional partners from Europe and Africa and use their existing data and expertise to build new capacity for HIV vaccine trials in Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania.

Development of AntiRetroviral Therapy in Africa (DART)

DART is 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 is provided by MRC (UK), the Department for International Development (DFID, UK) and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Microbicides Development Programme (MDP)

The Microbicides Development Programme (MDP) is a partnership of African and European researchers working together to fight HIV. MDP conducts clinical trials to test the safety and effectiveness of products which could help women protect themselves against this disease. MDP is funded by the UK government through its Department for International Development (DfID) and Medical Research Council.

Short Pulse Anti Retroviral Therapy at HIV Seroconversion (SPARTAC)

SPARTAC is 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 is 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. The study is funded by the Wellcome Trust and is part of an international collaboration between Imperial College, MRC CTU UK and participating sites.

UK HIV Vaccines Consortium

The UK HIV Vaccine Consortium is a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award, which commenced in April 2008 for five years. The consortium is an integrated and project-managed collaboration of UK academic groups to study diverse potential HIV vaccine constructs and immunization strategies. The principle underlying UKHVC strategy is the comparative clinical study of GMP products bearing common HIV inserts, using short schedule, small scale clinical trials in healthy volunteers. The overarching aim of the UKHVC is to determine the most immunogenic vaccine strategy for HIV, amongst combinations of existing candidates.

PopART

The prevention of HIV infection is assuming ever greater public health importance as widespread antiretroviral therapy increases HIV prevalence. HIV vaccine development remains disappointing and preventative microbicides have yet to have a successful proof-of-concept trial. We propose that widespread use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all adults testing HIV positive could substantially reduce HIV transmission. This approach would also expand the capacity and infrastructures needed to enhance VCT and ART access for all individuals living with HIV, leading to great potential reductions in morbidity and mortality. The concept of using universal ART to reduce viraemia and prevent HIV transmission at a population level is radical, poses major challenges and will require significant resources and commitment to evaluate rigorously. PopART will investigate the feasibility of undertaking a future cluster randomised trial (Population effects of AntiRetroviral Therapy – PopART) to Reduce HIV Transmission. The trial will compare population clusters of enhanced identification of HIV infection and universal provision of antiretroviral therapy in order to reduce HIV transmission at a population level, versus control sites, which will be HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy according to ‘local standard of care’.