Update on PrEP trial in England

Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England have published an update on the PrEP Impact Trial.

Since June, two meetings have taken place regarding the PrEP trial.

The first meeting, on 29 June, was for representatives from community and voluntary groups representing people living with HIV and experts in HIV treatment and prevention. It was originally set up to provide PHE with advice around the coordination of an HIV-PrEP public health implementation pilot. The group agreed that it would become more focussed on providing advice and assurance to the trial.

The group also received an update on progress with setting up the trial, reviewed and commented on the communications plan for the trial, and made a number of suggestions about how to ensure the trial engages effectively with communities represented by members and also those communities that may be less engaged with services, at the meeting.

The second meeting, on 15 July, was for the PrEP Programme Oversight Board. The Board received an update on progress with the trial drug procurement, as a number of bids had been received by the closing date which were now being reviewed in advance of a bidder being selected. It also received an assurance that the ethics committee approval was on track and that feedback on the trial budget had been addressed.

The Board reviewed and discussed plans to ensure the readiness of GUM clinics participating in the trial. It was accepted that some clinics would be ready to provide PrEP sooner than others, however, members of the Board stressed the importance of ensuring that the first wave of clinics covered as wide a geographical area as possible and that other clinics come on stream as soon as possible after.

Finally, it agreed a set of questions and answers to provide an update on trial progress to be sent out to stakeholders alongside the July stakeholder update.