Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), conducts a safety and acceptability study of a vaginal ring as a microbicide delivery method for HIV prevention in women. The study is implemented across multiple sites in Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania. It assesses the safety and acceptability of a silicone elastomer vaginal ring, designed for HIV prevention, when inserted continuously for 12 weeks in healthy, sexually active women.

Study Design
IPM 011 is an open-label crossover study conducted at four sites across Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania. A total of 200 healthy, sexually active women participate to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and acceptability of the vaginal ring (containing no drug) as a potential HIV-prevention delivery method.

Impact

• Enrolled 200 women across multi-country research sites, generating critical safety and acceptability data.
• Strengthened local research capacity for conducting complex multi-country HIV-prevention clinical trials.
• Provided evidence on the feasibility of a vaginal ring as a woman-controlled HIV-prevention method.
• Informed the global HIV-prevention research agenda by contributing to the development of innovative, user-friendly microbicide delivery systems.