GlaxoSmithKline's ViiV begins new HIV prevention study in Africa

GlaxoSmithKline announced on Thursday that ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company it majority owns with Pfizer and Shionogi as shareholders, will start HPTN 084 - a phase III study to evaluate long-acting cabotegravir for the prevention of HIV infection in sexually active women.

The FTSE 100 firm said the study would evaluate injections of cabotegravir given every two months, compared with daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.

It said the study was seeking to enrol 3,200 women aged between 18 and 45 from sub-Saharan African countries, and was being conducted through a public‑private funding collaboration composed of ViiV Healthcare, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) - part of the National Institutes of Health - and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The study was sponsored by NIAID, and study medications were being provided by Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare.

“In sub-Saharan Africa, women account for more than half of all new HIV infections in adults and there is clearly a public health need for prevention strategies that empower women to protect themselves from HIV,” said ViiV Healthcare’s chief scientific and medical officer John C Pottage, Jr.

“ViiV Healthcare is committed to the inclusion of women in our efforts to develop innovative therapeutic options for the treatment and prevention of HIV and this study start is an important step in that direction.”