Clinical trials

This study is an open-label, ascending dose phase 1b/2a trial to assess the safety and immunogenicity of a heterologous protein prime/MVA boost therapeutic hepatitis B vaccine in patients with chronic HBV who are virally suppressed with oral anti-viral therapies.

This is a phase 2B/C, open label platform study that will compare the efficacy, safety of experimental regimens with a standard control regimen in participants with newly diagnosed, drug sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis. In stage 1, participants will be randomly allocated to the control or one of the 2 rifampicin-containing experimental regimens in the ratio 1:1:1. In stage 2, the experimental arm 4 containing BTZ-043 will be added. The allocation ratio will be changed to co-enrol the remaining participants in arms 1- 3 simultaneously with arm 4 in a ratio of 1:1:1:2. When arms 1-2 are fully enrolled and arm 4 is not, further participants will be randomized 1:1 to control and experimental arm 4. Not all countries will participate in stage 2. In stage 3, participants will be allocated in parallel to control arm treatment (now designated arm 7) or the experimental arms 5 and 6, favouring arm 5, 2:1:1 over arms 6 and control. This stage will start after completion of recruitment in the stages 1 and 2. Enrolment of participants into arm 5 will proceed following review of data from the ENABLE/UNITE-03 (NCT06748937), non-clinical safety data and after endorsement by the DSMB. Thus, arm 5 recruitment might start after arms 6 and 7, which may require an increase in the control arm sample size to ensure controls are recruited concomitantly.

This study aims to improve HIV healthcare services for mothers living with HIV and their newborns in Tanzania and Mozambique. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1) does enhancing screening with maternal HIV viral load monitoring at delivery identify more mother-child pairs at high-risk for HIV vertical transmission? and 2) are high-risk infants linked to appropriate prevention and care? The study will expand access to HIV testing services to more rural settings using a hub-and-spoke referral system.

In this study we aim to characterize SARS CoV-2 strain specific immune response (SARS-CoV-2 Spike IgG) in health care workers and general populations at the Jimma Medical Center and the St. Paul Hospital in Addis Ababa in association to clinical immune protection and Covid-19 disease. Participants, stratified by SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination status, will be followed at 3-month intervals for a maximum of 2 years. Prevalence, incidence, and dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies as well as clinical assessments especially related to COVID-19 breakthrough disease in previously exposed/vaccinated participants will be performed. From a subset of selected participant blood sample, more in depth immunological analysis will be performed that include virus culture-based neutralization assays, antibody avidity assays, SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody epitope recognition using peptide arrays, and T-cell immunity assays (IGRA). We also plan to analyze and model cost-effectiveness considerations related to adapted COVID-19 vaccine strategies, specifically if SARS-CoV-2 the costs for routine sero-diagnosis in high SARS-CoV-2 prevalent population prior to vaccination will impact the decision to vaccinate (no vaccination for low-risk populations or reduced vaccine dosing) and is cost-efficient. The study is largely exploratory, providing deeper insights in SARS-CoV-2 specific immune responses and interaction with SARS-CoV-2 viral variants.