ViiV Healthcare joins PENTA Foundation to help children living with HIV

ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company majority-owned by UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), with Pfizer Inc. and Shionogi Limited as shareholders, has announced a new collaboration with the Pediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS (PENTA) Foundation to provide dedicated funding for PENTA’s EPIICALConsortium in the quest to develop optimal treatment strategies for children living with HIV and explore the potential for achieving disease remission.

In addition to providing funding to the EPIICAL Consortium, ViiV Healthcare scientists will work with the PENTA Foundation and other leading paediatric HIV researchers from across the world to study the viral reservoir and immune characteristics of pediatric patients with HIV from previously established cohorts. The primary aim of this research is to develop models that can predict response to antiretroviral treatment to optimise treatment for children living with HIV.

The Consortium hopes to use the output of this research in the design of new clinical studies of current and new therapies with the aim to replicate the virologic and immunologic profile predicted by the model. The data and patient profiles may also help inform the design of prospective studies with new and existing treatments intended to lead to HIV remission, and ultimately, cure.