ViiV Healthcare has announced that it will renew its partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The partners have been collaborating on the search for an HIV cure since 2015, bringing together academic and pharma industry skills in their quest to eliminate the virus. Abi Millar spoke to ViiV Healthcare to find out more.
For the past five years, ViiV Healthcare (a global specialist HIV company) has been collaborating with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Together, the two entities have been focused on discovering a cure for HIV.
In March this year, the two announced that they would renew their partnership for another five-year stint. Through bringing together academic and industrial expertise, this $20m collaboration aims to develop an entirely new therapeutic approach to the virus.
“The collaboration was founded out of the idea that we would likely not make progress toward curing HIV as individuals and that together we stood a better chance to move forward,” says Richard Dunham, director of HIV Cure at ViiV Healthcare. “The partnership involves financial support from both ViiV and UNC, staff from both institutions, and specialised support from both institutions.”
From the University of North Carolina side, this means clinical expertise, along with physical space and logistical support. ViiV Healthcare, meanwhile, brings know-how in drug discovery and drug development, as well as access to broader support from its parent company, GlaxoSmithKline.
Read the rest of this article in the June 2020 edition of Pharma Technology Focus
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