UNC’s Global Clinical Trials Unit Attracts Researchers, Leads to Discoveries About HIV Prevention and Treatment

We are continuing our new series Media Day, where we spotlight individual medical institutions and infectious disease programs. Today, we spotlight the University of North Carolina (UNC)’s Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases.

UNC’s Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) is a research unit deeply involved in HIV prevention and treatment. The CTU facilitates research across the National Institutes of Health Clinical Trials Networks and supports innovative trials in various locations, including the southeastern US, southern Africa, and Southeast Asia.¹

Specifically, within the unit, there are research sites in North Carolina, Malawi, and Vietnam. Joseph Eron, MD, is the codirector of UNC’s CTU, and he notes communication between the US and global sites as a key component of their work despite the several-hour time differences between the Eastern Time Zone of the US and those countries.

“To get us all together is a challenge, but we do it, and people are very dedicated…. They really believe in the mission of our group, which is to improve the health of the people in North Carolina and improve the health of people globally,” Eron said. “And what we're learning, which I love, is that what we learn globally sometimes impacts people in North Carolina.”

He notes UNC's work in the PURPOSE study, which looked at HIV prevention. CTU was involved in the PURPOSE 2 and 3 studies that looked at the HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) agent lenacapavir, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this summer. Their results showed very high efficacy in preventing HIV.

“I think it's going to change the way HIV prevention is done worldwide…. PURPOSE 2 was done here in the US and South America, and PURPOSE 3 was done exclusively in the US and focused on women at risk,” Eron said.

“In the studies that were done, it was nearly perfect. In fact, in the studies done in Africa, there were no transmissions recorded,” Eron said of women using lenacapavir. “[For] the studies done in the US and in South America, in transgender people, gender-diverse people, and men who have sex with men, there were just a couple of infections out of thousands of people in the study. So really quite amazing.”

Lenacapavir has been studied and approved for protection up to 6 months, but Eron notes the agent is currently being studied for protection up to a full year.

In addition to his work on the CTU, Eron serves as UNC’s division chief of infectious diseases, and he finds both roles are interwoven.

“I think the roles complement each other, because part of my job as the division director in infectious disease is, No. 1, to recruit very talented people in infectious disease,” Eron said. “A lot of the talented people want to combine clinical work with research. So having that role as a recruiter for infectious disease at UNC is a big plus.”

In the next episode, Sarah Rutstein, MD, PhD, discusses her work about access barriers to PrEP use in rural and peri-urban areas in the US.

References
1. UNC Global Clinical Trials Unit launches new HIV drug combination for enhancing immune response and suppression. University of North Carolina. April 30, 2024. Accessed August 28, 2025. https://globalhealth.unc.edu/2024/04/unc-global-clinical-trials-unit-launches-new-hiv-drug-combination-for-enhancing-immune-response-and-suppression