Why have we set up this website?
One of the main reasons that clinical trials ‘fail’ is because
they don’t recruit as many volunteers as needed before the money
runs out or the product being tested expires. We have struggled
with almost all the healthy volunteer studies that we have been
involved with in UK.
This may be partly explained by the fact that we are
investigating products to prevent HIV, and HIV is an infection that
people are scared of. When people get the chance to speak to
us, we can usually address their concerns as these invariably arise
from misconceptions.
We want to build up a network of volunteers who would, in
principle, be willing to participate in HIV prevention trials. This
would mean that when we are ready to start, recruitment will not
slow us down. This website is a way of getting the correct
information out there in advance of the trials, so that hopefully
people will fire back questions and comments to help us understand
what the motivating factors and main concerns for participation
are.
In France, the ANRS (the French HIV research agency) have a
network of healthy volunteers who want to help with the fight
against HIV, and we were very impressed with the speed at which
they recruited to a trial we worked on together in 2008-2009.
We know that people in the UK are generous in contributing to
HIV/AIDS fund-raising inititatives. What we are asking for is time.
Initially this would mean time spent reading more about the
products that might prevent HIV, and the way that these are
assessed in clinical trials. We hope to capture your imagination
and convince you to join our network of healthy volunteers, but in
the first instance we just want you to find out more about what is
involved, and ask us questions.
If you do decide to register on the network, then we may contact
you about a specific trial when it starts recruiting. Joining the
network does not commit you to taking part in a clinical trial –
this will always be a separate decision after a full discussion and
the opportunity to ask us questions face to face.
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