Global Teleconference: VOICE Trial Update
September 30, 2011A global teleconference was held to discuss the VOICE trial update in September 2011.
After an interim review of trial data, the independent Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB) for VOICE—a proof-of-concept trial testing oral TDF/FTC, oral tenofovir and tenofovir gel, which has enrolled more than 5,000 women in South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe—has recommended that the oral tenofovir arm of the study be stopped and that the women in that arm exit the trial in a structured process. The DSMB concluded that there was no possibility that daily use of the oral tenofovir pill (TDF, brand name Viread) would show effectiveness in preventing HIV in the context of the VOICE trial.
This result is one of several ARV-based prevention data announcements that have come in the last 18 months. The data on PrEP in women are mixed and require further investigation. AVAC will be monitoring these developments closely and will work with researchers and advocates to help understand the implications of these and other recent results.