By Annette Semerdjian
Chemist Marc Baum and his team at Oak Crest, a non-profit science research lab located in Monrovia, created a new preventative measure for HIV. This innovation in sexual health and wellness is an intra-vaginal ring device that releases HIV prevention drugs vaginally, at a controlled rate.
“From a scientific prospective we innovated tremendously with our novel design that is really allowing multiple drugs to be released from a single ring,” Baum said.
“Over 7,000 people every day become HIV positive or infected with HIV globally. There’s still an astounding number of infections and most of them occur in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Baum said. With this new technology, now under its clinical trial period, women everywhere and in Sub-Saharan Africa can soon utilize this new ring in either 30- or 90-day periods.
Studies at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga., provided the research needed to launch this new discovery at Oak Crest. The CDC conducted studies on macaques given a smaller-sized intra-vaginal ring before being exposed to HIV. All six of the macaques in the study were fully protected from traces of the virus.
The ring has some benefits over Truvada, which is an oral drug for HIV prevention approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Baum stated, “the drug really does not get into the bloodstream- it’s delivered vaginally, it really stays locally at the area of infection.” Thus, the gastro-intestinal and kidney issues related to the oral drug would not be a risk factor with the ring. The ring, removed once every month or so, could also be cheaper than taking a pill every day, according to Baum.
“Truvada works incredibly well, it’s 100 percent protective, it’s amazing, but you have to take it every day,” Baum stated. “It’s strange even though you and I may think well, that’s obvious if I’m at risk of getting HIV, of course I’m going to take this – it’s not that simple, people really don’t and that’s why people still get HIV even though there’s this approved technology out there.”
The disadvantage to the ring is that it only protects vaginally, unlike Truvada, which protects every gender from any means of contraction.
Yet Baum assured they are working on another alternative with this new innovative device for broader protection. “We have developed a sub-dermal implant technology, which is actually related to our ring technology, and basically this would be a match stick sized device implanted most likely in the inside of the upper arm,” Baum said. “It’s not even surgery, you basically push it in with a needle and that device would release the drug systemically.”
In terms of getting this technology to women first, Baum explained, “that’s really the low hanging fruit, that’s where the disproportionate number of infections occur. More than twice as many women, young women, become infected than young men in Sub-Saharan Africa.” The women in Sub-Saharan Africa are more familiar with a sub-dermal implant because they are already using it for contraception.
“I think there are, especially vaginally, a lot of disorders we don’t understand. I mean, Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) is a huge problem here in the US, also a big problem in Africa, 30 percent of women have BV here in the US and that’s a big percentage,” Baum said, in regards to the progression of sexual health in science and medicine. “Even though it’s not deadly or it doesn’t cause serious harm it’s still very unpleasant and something that can lead to other diseases, like increasing your susceptibility in HIV infection.”
Sexual health is an issue that Oak Crest has contributed greatly towards, progressing with this new intra-vaginal ring. Baum stated the importance of having many options available for women because each woman’s individual biology reacts uniquely to any given drug or device.
“Hopefully this will translate into actual human lives saved, which would be the ultimate reward for doing this.”
