The HPTN has the mission of conducting HIV prevention research at the highest scientific and ethical standards. The updated HPTN Ethics Guidance for Research aims to facilitate the Network’s mission by raising awareness of the associated ethical considerations, engaging all network members in discussion about those considerations, and promoting the integration of ethical considerations into the design and implementation of HIV prevention research.
The HPTN Ethics Working Group first developed the HPTN Ethics Guidance for Research in 2003 and then updated it in 2009.
Several developments during the last decade have prompted this latest revision, including:
- Advances in HIV prevention science;
- Scholarship regarding establishing research priorities and the need for responsiveness in research;
- Guidance on community engagement and capacity-strengthening;
- Evolving guidelines, policies and regulations;
- Increased emphasis on disseminating research results;
- Challenges and approaches to post-trial access; and
- Advances in genomics and molecular phylogenetics
Dr. Jeremy Sugarman, chair of the HPTN Ethics Working Group and Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Bioethics and Medicine, at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Baltimore and Dr. Brandon Brown, 2015-16 HPTN Domestic Scholar and current associate professor in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside led the revision with extensive input of the HPTN Ethics Working Group. HPTN Leadership and the Executive Committee provided additional support.
VIEW THE UPDATED ETHICS GUIDANCE DOCUMENT