Brigham and Women’s Hospital Receives $140 Million Grant

Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) has announced that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded the hospital two seven-year grants to fund the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG). The funding totals $20 million annually or $140 million over seven years.

The ACTG is an international consortium of clinical research sites conducting clinical trials in HIV-infected adults to test therapeutic interventions focused on organ disease, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis caused by HIV, and tests for an HIV cure.

“The work accomplished by the ACTG over the last quarter century has had a profound impact on the wellbeing of persons living with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis,” says Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at BWH and principal investigator and chair of the ACTG.

The ACTG’s achievements over the years include: enrolling more than 25,000 participants into 85 clinical trials in the U.S. and in resource-limited settings around the world; developing a laboratory infrastructure to conduct clinical trials of TB and multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB in resource-limited settings; conducting trials comparing various antiretroviral drug regimens that formed the cornerstones of current guidelines and standards of clinical management of HIV-1 infection; and proving that early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in patients starting treatment for tuberculosis improves survival in patients with advanced AIDS.

“Results of ACTG trials have helped establish the paradigm for the management of HIV disease and form the basis of current treatment guidelines in the US and internationally. This progress has resulted in dramatic reductions in AIDS mortality across the globe,” Kuritzkes says. “These accomplishments have been accelerated by an innovative alliance of academic, government and industry scientists, clinicians, regulatory agencies and community advocates. We are delighted that NIAID has provided us the opportunity to continue this important work over the next seven years.”