The HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) is a worldwide collaborative clinical trials network that develops and tests the safety and efficacy of primarily non-vaccine interventions designed to prevent the transmission of HIV. Established in 1999 by the Division of AIDS of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, HPTN focuses its research agenda on anti-retroviral therapy, microbicides, perinatal prevention, sexual behavior, substance use, and sexually transmitted infections. HPTN carries out its mission through a strong network of expert scientists and investigators from more than two dozen international sites partnered with a leadership group comprised of three U.S.-based institutions.
FHI serves as the Coordinating and Operations Center (CORE) for HPTN. As the CORE, FHI is responsible for scientific management of HPTN, starting with research plan development and continuing through protocol review, study implementation, and publication of results. FHI also is responsible for logistical, administrative, and communications support for HPTN committees, scientific working groups, protocol teams, and Community Advisory Boards. FHI works closely with DAIDS Program and Grants Management staff on monitoring and resource allocation within the Network, including the management of the HPTN discretionary fund.
Selected materials
HPTN Ethics Guidance (2009 [revised June 10], PDF, 638 KB)
HPTN Ethics Guidance for Research (2003, PDF, 118 KB)
A number of developments over the last five years have prompted this revision of the HPTN ethics guidance document, including new scientific findings and the increased availability of antiretroviral treatments. The revised Ethics Guidance for Research was completed June 10, 2009. This revised guidance document aims to facilitate HPTN's mission by raising awareness of the associated ethical considerations, engaging network members at all levels in discussion about those considerations, and facilitating the integration of ethical considerations into the design and implementation of HPTN research.
A brief description of the 2003 HPTN Ethics Guidance Document was published in the BMJ, "Ethics Guidance for HIV
Prevention Trials"1 (2003, PDF, 66 KB).
In addition, several members of the EWG wrote about the process of producing the guidance document and how it fits into HPTN research in an article published in IRB: Ethics & Human Research: "Back to the Rough Ground: Working in International HIV Prevention as Ethical Debates Continue"2
(2009, PDF, 67 KB).
1Reproduced with permission from the BMJ Publishing Group. This article originally appeared in BMJ 2003, vol. 327, no. 7410, p. 340.
2© The Hastings Center. Reprinted by permission. This article originally appeared in IRB: Ethics & Human Research, vol. 25, no. 2 (2003).
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