The first two participants of the SHIELD trial (PENTA-22) were screened by Dr. Renate Strehlau and her team at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa in June 2022. SHIELD is the first paediatric trial on Fostemsavir, targeting children living with HIV that have developed resistance to two or more antiretroviral drug classes.
SHIELD aims to evaluate the safety of fostemsavir when taken with optimized background antiretroviral therapy. The trial will also investigate the pharmacokinetics (which is investigating if the amount of drug in the blood is sufficient to be therapeutically effective) of temsavir, the active part of fostemsavir, in children and adolescents living with HIV.
Ensuring safe and effective treatment options are available for all children is imperative to the realisation of an AIDS-free generation. The results of this study could lead to the approval of a new drug for use in children and adolescents on HIV treatment that is failing.
SHIELD is funded by ViiV Healthcare and sponsored by Penta.
Photo by Robert Kneschke