18 December 2017

Kenya is among seven African countries chosen to carry out large-scale trials for an injectable HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for women without HIV. The clinical trials of the new, long-acting injectable drug known as cabotegravir (CAB) will be conducted among 3,200 HIV-uninfected, sexually active women in Uganda, Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. The trial is meant to examine the safety and effectiveness of the injectable drug compared to the daily oral PrEP pills. “In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 60 percent of all people living with HIV are women,” said Wafaa El-Sadr, the co-principal investigator and professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University. “Young African women share a disproportionate burden and are especially vulnerable to this epidemic.”

“The development of safe alternative options for PrEP could increase HIV prevention choices for women,” said Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, chair of the study at the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. HPTN 084 trial is jointly funded through a partnership of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the US National Institutes of Health; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and ViiV Healthcare.

Read the full article online here.