_______________________

Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) will next year embark on yet another research for six-month injectable antiretroviral drugs (ARVS), the executive director JCRC, Dr. Cissy Kityo, has said.

Specifically, the injectable ARVS (cabotegravir and rilpivirine) will be given to patients who have become extensively resistant to available antiretroviral drugs, Dr. Kityo said.

Dr Kityo said the agency has decided to embark on the research because the option gives patients a longer period before getting a refill.

JCRC has the capacity to conduct clinical trials, and currently, discussions to secure contracts and funding are ongoing.  

The same drug has already been approved in the US for people who have extensive resistance to ARVs.

Dr. Kityo was speaking during the 15th Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) Annual HIV Update meeting to unveil the groundbreaking advancements in HIV research and healthcare at Mestil Hotel on Wednesday.

The project lead for injectable ARVs research in Africa at JCRC, Dr. Ivan Mambule, said HIV drug resistance happens when the predominant virus mutates and overcomes the action of the drug on it. 

Although lack of adherence to AVRs is a major cause of treatment failure, Dr. Mambule said there are instances when the virus mutates because there is a compartment that is not accessible by the drug, consequently encouraging the multiplication of the virus. 

Other people get infected with a resistant/mutant virus at the onset and automatically develop first-line treatment failure.

The health minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, said the ministry will always support JCRC, given that the country is looking forward to two major breakthroughs; the injectable treatment that is already here with us and a cure for HIV, which research they have been undertaking and a vaccine.  

The health minister Dr Ruth Aceng (R) interacts with Dr Cissy Kityo, the executive director of JCRC during the HIV annual meeting in Kampala. (All Photos by Francis Emorut)

On-going injectable clinical trials

JCRC is already coordinating the first clinical trials on the injectable ARVs on the continent that started in 2021. The research aims at evaluating the injectable antiretroviral drugs on the African continent.

“If the drug is approved it will reduce the frequency of taking the pills hence promoting adherence,” Dr. Kityo said.

By August this year, a total of 521 participants from Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa had completed 12 months, and the researchers are conducting primary analysis to determine whether the medicine works after 12 months, and the results will be made available next year, Dr. Mambule said. 

The same participants will be followed for another 12 months, and a similar analysis will be conducted after 24 months to see whether the results will be the same.

Additionally, JCRC is part of the coordination of another study of injectable ARVs among adolescents aged 12 to 19.

This year Baylor Uganda started the recruitment of adolescent (12 to 19) participants who will also be followed up for two years (24 months)

HIV care and treatment

An estimated 1,433,337 People were Living with HIV (PLHIV) as of December 2022, of which 1,403,603 (98%) were on ART as of June 2023. 

This means about 29,734 people living with HIV are not on treatment.  

This according to the director Planning and Strategic Information at Uganda AIDS Commission, Dr. Vincent Bagambe, is worrying and there is need to urgently find and enroll them in treatment and care.