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FHI Awarded HIV Research Contract -- October 19, 1999

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- The National Institutes of Health has selected Family Health International (FHI) to lead its cooperative HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), a five-year program to evaluate HIV prevention interventions, both in the United States and in developing countries. The HPTN is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

The cooperative agreement awarded to FHI for the HPTN Leadership Group and Operations Center is expected to total $22 million over the five years, including $3 million this year. Under separate grants expected to be awarded to research sites, another $90 million could be available to the network. The program continues work FHI began in 1993, called the HIV Network for Prevention Trials (HIVNET). Under HIVNET, FHI was the international master contractor that oversaw studies performed in developing countries. The research itself is conducted by universities, hospitals and other research centers in the countries involved, as well as by a network of collaborating U.S. universities and other research centers.

"We are very pleased that NIAID has selected Family Health International to continue the leadership of this vitally important research," said Dr. Willard Cates, Jr., MD, MPH, FHI president and principal investigator for the HPTN Leadership Group, who announced the new award today. Under this new award, FHI's oversight will expand to include US-based research.

"Under HIVNET, FHI managed 13 international study sites in 11 countries, in HIV prevention studies involving more than 8,000 subjects. Under HPTN, we will continue the next phase for many of these studies, while adding promising new drugs and strategies to our agenda, and increasing our involvement in studies in this country. The HPTN will oversee HIV prevention research internationally in the six areas of perinatal prevention, microbicides, controlling other sexually transmitted diseases, sexual behavior, substance use and anti-retroviral therapy."

A recent example of research conducted through the HIVNET was the announcement of results from a study in Uganda of the use of a simple and relatively inexpensive drug called nevirapine to reduce HIV transmission between infected pregnant women and their infants. FHI managed and helped design the HIVNET nevirapine study in collaboration with scientists at Makerere University in Uganda and Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. Preliminary findings, published in September,^* suggest that the nevirapine strategy could save thousands of infant lives throughout the developing world.

"The need to identify the most effective and affordable ways to prevent HIV spread in both developed and less developed countries is crucial," Dr. Cates said. "The research agendas of HIVNET and HPTN provide real hope that we may be able to protect many of the developing world's next generation from the ravages of AIDS."

Based in North Carolina, FHI is a nonprofit research and technical assistance organization dedicated to improving reproductive health worldwide. Under another program financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, called the Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care (IMPACT) project based in Washington, FHI implements programs in more than 30 developing countries to prevent the spread of HIV and to provide care for those who are infected.

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* Guay LA, Musoke P, Fleming T, et al. Intrapartum and neonatal single-dose nevirapine compared with zidovudine for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 in Kampala, Uganda: HIVNET 012 randomised trial. 1999 Lancet 354(9181):795-802; Marseille E, Kahn JG, Mmiro F, et al. Cost effectiveness of single-dose nevirapine regimen for mothers and babies to decrease vertical HIV-1 transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. 1999 Lancet 354(9181):803-809.