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The Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (PACTG) is a self-governed organization with its own scientific agenda and process to determine what will be evaluated in its clinical trials. Non-PACTG investigators wishing to evaluate potential therapies or test pathogenesis hypotheses in the PACTG must collaborate with PACTG investigators.

The PACTG is a cooperative clinical trials network funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) to evaluate clinical interventions, including the efficacy of drugs and drug combinations for treating HIV infection and HIV-associated illnesses in infants, children, adolescents and pregnant women. The PACTG is comprised of a Coordinating and Operations Center, a Statistical and Data Management Center, and 21 Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Units throughout the United States.

PACTG Research Agenda

The scientific agenda of the PACTG encompasses the critical issues that impact on mother-to-infant transmission and treatment of HIV-infected infants, children, and adolescents. This mission is accomplished through four Research Agenda Committees (RACs):

• Primary Therapy RAC

  The Primary Therapy RAC designs and implements new antiretroviral treatment strategies in neonates, infants, children, and adolescents, and investigates the pathogenesis of pediatric HIV infection during antiretroviral therapy. Additional information can be obtained from the PACTG web site by clicking here.

• Immunology/Immune-Based Therapies (IBT) RAC

  The Immunology/IBT RAC designs and implements strategies to augment, modulate, reconstitute, or replace the immune system in children receiving antiretroviral therapy, and to determine whether passive and/or active immunization of pregnant HIV-infected women or their newborns can reduce or prevent vertical transmission. Additional information can be obtained from the PACTG web site by clicking here.

• Opportunistic Infections RAC

  The Opportunistic Infections RAC designs and implements clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a broad-spectrum of opportunistic pathogen prophylaxis and treatment schemes for HIV-infected children, and to investigate the pathogenic interaction between opportunistic infections and HIV disease progression. Additional information can be obtained from the PACTG web site by clicking here.

• Perinatal Transmission RAC

  The Perinatal Transmission RAC designs and implements clinical trials to evaluate interventions designed to reduce vertical transmission of HIV-1, and to assess the short- and long-term impacts of interventional strategies on the health of women and their offspring. Additional information can be obtained from the PACTG web site by clicking here.

Accessing These Resources

Investigators wishing to have a therapy evaluated by the PACTG should do the following:

1. Refer to the PACTG research agenda above to determine whether the therapeutic concept is likely to be of interest to this group. If so:
2. Write the proposal in the format that is required by the Group for review of new ideas.
3. Submit the concept proposal to the DAIDS Therapeutics Research Program for review and forwarding to the PACTG.

PACTG's interest or disinterest in further pursuing the proposed concept will be relayed to investigators and additional information may be requested.