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November 13, 2007

Renewed grant continues HIV treatment trials at Miriam

PROVIDENCE -- Miriam Hospital announced today that clinical trial researchers will be able to continue pursuing better treatments for people with HIV now that a federal grant has been renewed for seven years.

The National Institute of Health renewed the grant that makes the hospital's immunology center a research location of the Harvard AIDS Clinical Trials Unit -- one of the medical centers worldwide that comprises the NIH's AIDS Clinical Trials Group.

The Aids Clinical Trials Group is the world's largest HIV clinical trials organization and helps in setting care standards for HIV infection and diseases related to HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and the developing world.

New trials -- research studies -- expected to start at Miriam's institute include evaluating therapies for those newly diagnosed with HIV and people with resistant HIV.

Resistant HIV strains don't respond to multiple antiretroviral drugs that typically are used to help control the virus.

“Fortunately, there are more than three new outstanding medications that appear to be extremely effective against resistant HIV,” Dr. Karen Tashima, lead researcher, said in the statement.

Since 1996, doctors and researchers from Miriam Hospital and Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School have provided access to clinical trials to HIV-positive patients in Rhode Island and southeastern New England under Tashima's direction. Tashima will continue to lead The Miriam Hospital site.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 12:03 PM | Permalink

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