Global Advocates' Teleconference: VOICE trial update
November 28, 2011After an interim review of trial data last week, the independent Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB) for VOICE—a five-arm proof-of-concept trial that has enrolled more than 5,000 women in South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe—recommended that the 1% tenofovir gel 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 tenofovir gel would show effectiveness in preventing HIV in the context of the VOICE trial. Importantly, the DSMB found no safety issues in any arm of the trial. No other data from the trial have been released at this time. (An earlier DSMB review in September stopped the oral tenofovir arm of the trial after it was determined that oral tenofovir could not be shown effective in the context of this trial. The oral TDF/FTC arm is continuing.)
This hour-long global teleconference provided an opportunity for advocates to ask questions and discuss these results with a range of key stakeholders.
Additional background is available here. If you continue to have questions about VOICE, send them to avac@avac.org.