Trends in HIV Clinical Trials Worldwide over the Last Two Decades – Equity at stake?

Melvin George, Sree Harinadh K* and Subramaniyan K

Background: The study aims to determine the secular trends in HIV trials among the developed nations as well as regions with a high burden of HIV infection in the last two decades. 

Methods: Using the clinical trials.gov database, we identified the number of trials registered in the years 2000 to 2019 in developed nations as well as countries with a high burden of HIV. We used the search word “HIV infection” under Advanced Search option. We also searched for country specific no.of trials from the developed nations as well as the most populated regions in Africa and those with a high burden of HIV infection. 

Results: The total number of trials registered worldwide during the study period in HIV infection was 6236 during the period. Among these, 5825 studies fitted within our study criteria. In these studies, 52.5% of studies were done in the USA. The countries reporting maximum no of trials apart from USA, included France (7.3 %), Canada (5.4%) and UK (3%). Among African nations the countries with the most number of trails included South Africa (8.1%), Kenya (3%), Uganda (4%), Tanzania (2%), and Egypt (1%). Although countries such as Swaziland, Lesotho, and Botswana have a high burden of HIV infection, the number of trials with HIV from these countries is less than 1 % of the total HIV trials. All nations also showed a steady increase in the number of trials during the period.

Conclusion: Although African nations have a high burden of HIV infection, most of the clinical trials in HIV were done predominantly in the USA and Western European countries. There does not appear to be a proportionate distribution of HIV trials based on disease burden which largely reflects the care taken by sponsors to avoid using African nations as “guinea pigs” for clinical trials.

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Published on: Apr 27, 2020 Pages: 1-5

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/jhcsr.000029
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