Prism Health North Texas will be one of the largest U.S. sites for IMPOWER 22, a study for a new form of PrEP medication designed for women and transgender men.
In collaboration with Merck and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the study will have large numbers of participants in sub-Saharan Africa, where women and girls are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.
Currently two PrEP drugs — Truvada and Descovy — are on the market. Descovy has not been studied in large-scale clinical trials in women or transgender men, limiting them to one option for a pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment.
The trial medication is called Islatravir, a once-monthly oral tablet. Who can participate? Cisgender women aged 18-45 who do not have HIV, have been