UW Biostatistics professors Elizabeth Brown and Barbra Richardson contribute to an important finding published in the New England Journal of Medicine recently.   Brown was the lead statistician, and Richardson the unblinded statistician presenting at DSMB meetings for the ASPIRE study, which found that a vaginal ring that continuously releases an antiretroviral drug conferred a modest level of protection against HIV in women enrolled in a large clinical trial in four sub-Saharan African countries.  “The ring reduced the risk of HIV infection by 27 percent in the study population overall and by 61 percent among women ages 25 years and older, who used the ring most consistently.”  The ASPIRE study was led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) and included leadership from the UW’s Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). 

Summaries of the study’s findings are available from the NIH and MTN.