by
September 17, 2010
In a recent blog, I bemoaned the fact that donors were unable to secure the estimated $100 million needed to test and confirm the HIV prevention success of the CAPRISA microbicide. The comments on that blog by scientific writers Jon Cohen and Roger Tatoud point out that other trials of microbicide gels are in the works and that one in particular, the so-called VOICE trial, is both close to completion and particularly relevant.
Because the VOICE trial is designed differently from the CAPRISA trial, it can only partly confirm CAPRISA. The VOICE trial is comparing the rate of HIV acquisition in approximately 5,000 HIV-negative African women who are randomized into one of five groups. In contrast to the women in the CAPRISA study, who were asked to use apply the microbicide gel only before and after sex, each group of women in the VOICE trial is asked to take an action every day for two years. The actions requested of the five groups are:
- Take a daily pill containing the antiretroviral drug tenofovir
- Take a daily pill containing both the antiretroviral drug tenofovir and the drug emtricitabine
- Take a daily pill containing only inactive ingredients like sugar (a placebo)
- Apply to the vagina a microbicide gel containing tenofovir
- Apply to the vagina a microbicide gel containing only inactive ingredients (a placebo)
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