ViiV Healthcare Collaborative Research Program for Resource-Poor Settings

ViiV Healthcare is committed to the development of new molecules that target unmet medical needs in HIV. The treatment of children with HIV/AIDS remains a significant unmet medical need and there is a pressing need for new medicines to tackle problems such as drug resistance, complex treatment regimens, and side effects associated with current treatments. Through its HIV-collaborative research program for resource-poor settings, ViiV Healthcare is supporting clinical trials that are sponsored by external organizations - such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the UK Medical Research Council and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). At the end of 2009, 22 trials, involving approximately 23,300, patients, were either underway or committed to, with 19 of these trials being in Africa. These CRTs focus predominantly on public health-related issues such as prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, pediatric treatments strategies and HIV-TB co-infection. Five of these are pediatric studies, one of which will provide the first significant clinical data in the resource-poor setting on the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of ViiV Healthcare's NRTI scored tablets. ViiV Healthcare donates study antiretrovirals and/or financial support, and also provides scientific input. Countries in which HIV clinical trials are being conducted under the aegis of this program include: Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Haiti, India, Kenya, Malawi, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.