IAVI selects 3 Mumbai institutes to arrest HIV

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has selected three leading Indian institutes to be part of the prestigious global network, undertaking two separate path-breaking projects to develop and test microbicides to combat HIV.

The institutes- National AIDS Research Institute (NARI, Pune), St John's Medical college (SJMC, Bangalore) and YRG Care (Chennai)- will be part of the network in the projects to develop and test microbicides, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative sources said here today.

While National AIDS Research Institute joins an institute in Bronx (US) to conduct Phase-II trials of FDA approved oral and anti-HIV drug Tenofovir to be applied as a vaginal microbicidal gel, SJMC and YRG are conducting random Phase-III trial to see the effect of six per cent cellulose sulphate on vaginal HIV transmission, the sources said.

All the three institutes have been given green signal by health ministry's screening committee.

Microbicides are active compounds being developed by scientists that can be applied inside the vagina or rectum to protect against HIV.

Currently, over 60 candidate microbicides are in the pipeline but none of them are still available for public use.