Western Australian Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Implementation Trial

Overview

Despite all prevention efforts, many people in Australia continue to be infected with HIV. The Seventh National HIV Strategy 2014-2017 in Australia aims to work towards the elimination of HIV transmission by the year 2020. This project will evaluate a new additional way to lower people's chances of getting HIV. It will provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to people who are at high risk for HIV and evaluate what impact this new prevention approach will have on HIV in WA at the community level. The drug used in PREPIT-WA is called generic TDF/FTC (made by Mylan Laboratories Ltd.). The generic TDF/FTC is a single tablet made up of two HIV medications: tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine (a combination known as TDF/FTC). TDF and FTC have been widely used for many years to treat HIV. When used with other medicines in people who already have HIV, TDF/FTC reduces the amount of HIV virus in the blood. TDF/FTC does not cure HIV or AIDS, and it is not an HIV vaccine. As a treatment for people who already have HIV, TDF/FTC is approved for use in most of the world, including Australia. As a medicine for PrEP, to lower chances of HIV in those who are not infected, TDF/FTC has been approved in the US, and Truvada® (which contains TDF/FTC made by Gilead Sciences Inc.) was approved for PrEP in Australia in May 2016. At the start of the project, the generic TDF/FTC is not approved in Australia for the use as PrEP but it may become registered for use and more freely available in Australia in the future.

The Australian seventh National HIV strategy (2014-2017) aims to reduce the incidence of HIV and to work towards the virtual elimination of HIV transmission in Australia by 2020. This extraordinary goal relies on two anti-retroviral therapy (ARV)-related interventions, in addition to traditional behavioural prevention. The first of these interventions, HIV treatment as prevention targeted at HIV positive people, has been ramped up over the last few years, and is approaching maximal levels of population impact. Despite this, new HIV diagnoses in Australia have been approximately constant over the last four years. Critical to the new strategy's success is the population-based, targeted roll-out of HIV PrEP. PrEP involves taking one pill daily of co-formulated tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF)/emtricitabine (FTC). TDF/FTC has been extensively used in millions of people with HIV for more than 15 years. This large-scale study aims for the rapid roll-out of TDF/FTC to individuals at high risk of HIV, who will comprise mostly gay and bisexual men (GBM) but will also include small numbers of heterosexuals, people who inject drugs, and transgender men and women. The drug will be used according to existing Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health (ASHM) HIV PrEP Clinical Guidelines. By rapidly rolling out this new intervention as rapidly as feasible, and following participants for up to two years on treatments, we expect a reduction in new HIV diagnoses in WA due to decreased infection in the on-treatment cohort, and to the interruption of chains of transmission to others not receiving PrEP. The rapid and large-scale roll-out of PrEP is a critical component of working towards the virtual elimination of HIV transmission by 2020.