Project description
Measuring the impact of oral HIV therapy in sub-Saharan Africa
Nearly 40 million people worldwide live with HIV, yet viral suppression remains below the UNAIDS target of 95 %. Daily oral antiretroviral therapy can be difficult to maintain, often leading to treatment failure. A new weekly regimen combining lenacapavir and islatravir (LEN + ISL LA) offers promising results. The EU-funded POA project aims to roll out an open-label trial in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Participants aged 18 and older will be randomly assigned to switch to the long-acting injectable LEN + ISL or continue standard care. The project will assess the rollout of oral long-acting ART, pharmacokinetics, adherence, and health economics to inform policy.
Objective
Despite tremendous/significant efforts to expand access to antiretroviral therapy (ART), in 2023 there were still 1.3 million new HIV infections worldwide and 630,00 HIV/AIDS-related deaths. There are 39.9 million people living with HIV worldwide (PLWH), and viral suppression rates for those on ART are below the UNAIDS target of 95%. Current ART guidelines recommend lifelong daily oral therapy which can be burdensome, and incomplete adherence risks treatment failure. Injectable long-acting (LA) ART formulations reduce the burden of taking tablets daily and could simplify adherence but are associated with implementation challenges in many settings. A novel regimen of weekly oral lenacapavir and Islatravir (LEN + ISL LA) has successfully completed phase II studies in the United States and could offer an LA treatment solution which is easier, both for individual patients and programmatic roll-out. However, no LEN + ISL LA trials have been conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, where 75% of PLWH live.
We will conduct a phase III parallel-group, open-label, multi-country, multi-centre multi-country randomised, controlled trial in Uganda, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, and Zimbabwe. PLWH who are aged ≥18 years and virologically suppressed on daily oral first line ART (tenofovir, lamivudine, and dolutegravir) will be randomised to switch to LEN + ISL LA or remain on standard of care treatment. The primary outcome will be comparison of ongoing viral suppression rates between study arms at 48 weeks. We we will also use mixed Implementation Science methods to explore strategies, barriers, and facilitators for broader roll-out of oral LA ART, describe the overall pharmacokinetic profile of our new drugs across our study countries including some subpopulations, validate a urine assay for monitoring adherence, and carry out health economics evaluations to inform health policies. The project will be implemented by co-leads on each work packages to allow for capacity development.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.1 - Health
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-JU-RIA - HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-JU-GH-EDCTP3-2024-01-two-stage
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
KY16 9AJ ST ANDREWS
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.