UNC receives over $40 million for HIV trials

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received a seven year, more than $40 million award from the National Institutes of Health for a clinical trials unit that will implement the scientific agendas of five NIH networks devoted to HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and cure research.

The latest funding will consolidate HIV clinical research operations in North Carolina and Africa into a Global HIV Prevention and Treatment Clinical Trials Unit.

The new grant provides funding through 2021 for five clinical research sites that make up the unit: Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Greensboro, Lilongwe, Malawi and Lusaka, Zambia. The Southeastern United States and sub-Saharan Africa represent some of the most severely affected populations in the United States and worldwide, the school said.

“Researchers at Carolina have been at the forefront of the AIDS epidemic from day one,” said Dr. Marschall Runge, executive dean of the UNC School of Medicine, in a statement. “This award recognizes the scientific leadership and global reach of the UNC HIV/AIDS enterprise.”