Ongoing Studies

A Phase 3, Randomized, Active-Controlled, Double-blind Clinical Study To Evaluate the Efficacy And Safety Of MK-8527 Oral Once-Monthly As HIV-1 Preexposure Prophylaxis in Women

The Study is carried out in countries of South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.

PURPOSE 1 which stands for Phase 3, Double- Blinded, Multicenter, Randomized Study to Evaluate Safety and Efficacy of Twice Yearly Long- Acting Subcutaneous Lenacapavir, and Daily Oral Emtricitabine/ Tenofovir Alafenamide for Pre- Exposure Prophylaxis in Adolescent Girls and Young Women at Risk of HIV Infection started in 2022 and has the main objective of evaluating the efficacy of lenacapavir (LEN) and emitricitabine/ tenofovir alafenamide (F/TAF) in preventing the risk of HIV-1 infection relative to the background HIV-1 incidence rate.

The PURPOSE 1 study includes a cross-sectional study which has the Incidence phase, the Randomized phase a LEN Open Label Extension phase and Pharmacokinetic Tail Phase.

The PURPOSE I study in partnership with Gilead Sciences, Inc. is based in approximately 25 centers in South Africa and Uganda. In Uganda there are three sites that work on the PURPOSE study namely; Makerere- Kalangala, AMBSO and MUJHU with each site recruiting a total number of 250 cisgender Adolescent Girls and Young Women at risk of acquiring HIV-1 infection from the age of 16 to 25 years.

UVRI-CRP Initiative ( formerly UVRI-IAVI HIV Vaccine Program) started implementing ( PALISADE study ) a Long-Term Follow-Up study of Cabotegravir long-acting (CAB LA) for Participants in HPTN 083 and HPTN 084 CAB PrEP Studies at Risk of HIV Acquisition sponsored by ViiV Healthcare UK Limited on 17 Jan 2025

CHILI project which is Community Based HPV screening Implementation in Low- and middle-Income countries, started in 2021. This is a five-year study aimed to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the Horizon 2020 ELEVATE cervical cancer screening tool in LMICs.

The concept of the CHILI project is to design a multidisciplinary intervention to enhance screening coverage for cervical cancer, particularly for women in LMICs. The CHILI project supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation Action, is based in Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Cambodia. For Uganda, the Project is made up of the Formative research component, the Adaptation Protocol that enrolled 112 participants, the Survey and Discrete Choice Experiment that enrolled 600 participants and Piloting of the ELEVATE tool, all from the age of 25 to 65 years and residents of Mukono and Wakiso districts.

It is the intention of the CHILI consortium to develop a strategy that will bring cervical cancer screening to women, and not the other way around. Therefore, the device needs to be adapted and validated in these new contexts. Especially the cost of the device needs to be reduced as to afford scaling-up.

The approach of the CHILI project is three-fold. First, social science investigations will be conducted to understand current screening practices and to define a tailored strategy, including the new screening tool, that can be integrated in the current health system.

Secondly, engineers will validate the HPV self-testing device and will adapt it to reduce the unit price and to enable large-scale manufacturing at an affordable cost. Finally, public health specialists and health economists will evaluate the implementation of the new screening tool during a pilot study to assess its appropriateness and cost-effectiveness.