Announcements

The Forum for Collaborative Research joins the HIV community in mourning the death of Dr. Victor De Gruttola, professor emeritus of biostatistics at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, and valued member of the HIV Forum. His work on statistical modeling of HIV progression has had lasting influence on infectious disease epidemiology. At The Forum, he introduced us to the intricacies of high-dimensional data and their analysis, in his uniquely “Victor” way of explaining with humor, humility, and humanity, so we could all understand.

“He was a true mensch and is sorely missed. He knew to ask the right questions — questions of great significance — always moving the field forward,”  said Dr. Veronica Miller, the director of the Forum for Collaborative Research.

We join his colleagues, family, and friends in remembering his life and work with gratitude and affection.

On Friday, November 15, Veronica Miller received the 2024 Distinguished Advocacy Service Award from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Dr. Arun Sanyal presented the award in front of a large audience at the San Diego Convention Center. Veronica's sister, Ruth, and many members of the forum team were also present. Veronica, we are so happy to see you receive this recognition! Congratulations!

The Distinguished Advocacy Service Award is given to an advocacy organization or individual in honor of sustained service to the liver disease community in general. The award recognizes service provided to the hepatology community over an extended period that raises awareness or garners public and federal legislative support and promotes liver health and quality patient care.

The Forum joins the HIV community in mourning the death of A. Cornelius Baker. He was a joyous friend, an untiring colleague, a most generous host, an enthusiastic music lover, a most helpful connector and a man of great faith. Always ready to serve, help, advise, he was a towering force standing up for what is right and just. As an advocate, he was a national treasure. May his memory be a blessing to all who knew him.

Veronica Miller, director of the Forum for Collaborative Research at Berkeley Public Health, was recently a featured panelist on February 21 and 22 at the Healthcare Conference Taipei 2024, hosted by UC Berkeley School of Public Health in partnership with J.P. Morgan, Stanford, and the Regent Taipei. Read More

From left to right: Philip Kwame Yeboah (Hepatitis B Foundation Community Advisory Board), Peter Ramge (Roche Diagnostics), Wendy Spearman (University of Cape Town), John Ward (Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination), Philippa Easterbrook (World Health Organization), Danjuma Adda (World Hepatitis Alliance), Veronica Miller (Forum for Collaborative Research), Nicaise Ndembi (Africa CDC), Mitchell Leus (Forum for Collaborative Research), Edith Okeke (University of Jos)

Forum for Collaborative Research facilitates dialogue on bringing hepatitis B clinical trials to Africa

The Forum attended the 2023 African Hepatitis Summit and hosted a session that facilitated a discussion on the urgent need to bring hepatitis B clinical research to the African continent. Held in Abuja, Nigeria from October 24 – 26, 2023, the Summit convened civil society organizations, policy makers, global funders, medical professionals, and advocacy organizations to strengthen political will for putting Africa on track towards viral hepatitis elimination.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection of the liver, caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV), that can cause both acute and chronic liver disease. Chronic hepatitis B (CHB), frequently leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer, affects nearly 300 million people globally, with around 70% of worldwide HBV infections occurring in Africa. The HBV vaccine—which requires that the first dose be administered within 24 hours of a newborn’s birth—is safe and effective, but implementation across Africa is low. In 2021, only 14 of 47 African countries had introduced routine HBV vaccination, and only 17% of African newborns received a timely vaccination. Diagnosis and linkage to care across Africa are alarmingly low. In 2021, only 2% of persons infected with hepatitis B were diagnosed, and only 0.1% received antiviral treatment that suppresses virus replication to prevent cirrhosis and cancer.

Despite the continent’s high burden of disease, clinical trials for hepatitis B are generally not conducted in Africa. According to Dr. Nicaise Ndembi, Chief Science and Senior Advisor to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director General, only 5 hepatitis B clinical trials were conducted in Africa from 2016 – 2021, and these were Phase IV trials focused on post-marketing surveillance for already-approved therapies. The dearth of hepatitis B clinical trials in Africa can partially be attributed to suboptimal research and development (R&D) investment, with Dr. John Ward, Director at the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination of the Task Force for Global Health, stating that hepatitis B received $16 million in R& investment for new products and technologies in 2021, about 1% of R&D investment for HIV in the same year. Through the Forum’s model of multi-stakeholder discussion and deliberation, panelists from the World Health Organization, Roche Diagnostics, World Hepatitis Alliance, and the Hepatitis B Foundation Community Advisory Board provided an array of perspectives including capacity-building, health equity, and patient-centered clinical research.

Inclusion of African patients in hepatitis B clinical trials is important for promoting global health equity and ensuring that these communities are engaged in efforts to develop new treatments for hepatitis B. There are clear benefits to participation in clinical research. At the individual-level, patients have access to screening and potentially beneficial treatments, which may improve psychosocial and clinical outcomes associated with hepatitis B. At the community-level, clinical research may increase community-level knowledge and awareness of the disease, which could be important for addressing stigma and discrimination associated with hepatitis B.

“We feel strongly that clinical research is so important for communities,” said Dr. Veronica Miller, Director of the Forum and Adjunct Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology. Presentations at the Summit focused on implementation of hepatitis B vaccination, screening, and linkage to care; Dr. Miller emphasized that “we need to go back one step and bring the clinical research infrastructure to this continent, because clinical research is a stepping stone that is so important for implementation.”

About the Forum for Collaborative Research

Founded in 1997, The Forum for Collaborative Research at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health is a public/private partnership with a mission to catalyze clinical development and improve global health by facilitating research, informing policy, and advancing regulatory science. The Forum’s three-pronged approach (practice, research, education) accelerates safe drug development by increasing clarity, cooperation and innovation, while maintaining standards of evidence. Forum members work in clinical practice, research, academia, industry, regulatory authorities, and patient advocacy. Using proven models for stakeholder engagement they enhance clinical trial efficiency, support fair participation, and expand access programs. Current projects focus on transplantation associated virus infections (TAVI), viral hepatitis B (HBV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)/ metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), ocular diseases, and rare diseases.

We learned with great sadness about the passing of Dr. Adaora Adimora, the Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Adimora was an exceptional scientist and leader in the fight to end the HIV epidemic in the US and globally. In her career of over 25 years as a physician and researcher, she highlighted the social drivers of HIV transmission and the need for structural interventions to address HIV epidemics. "Ada was a longstanding collaborator of the Forum and a dear friend. She will be deeply missed by the global health community," said Dr. Veronica Miller, the director of the Forum for Collaborative Research. Her many contributions to the HIV field and beyond were recognized in 2019 when she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. We send our condolences to her family and friends as they remember a true inspiration to us all.

A Salute to Dr. Anthony Fauci

In November 2010, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci presented the Forum’s inaugural C. Everett Koop HIV/AIDS Health Leadership Award to VADM C. Everett Koop, the 13th U.S. Surgeon General for “Advancing the Nation’s Progress in Fighting HIV/AIDS through Distinguished Service, Vision and Leadership”. It was meant to acknowledge public health leaders with courage. Accepting the award, Dr. Koop gave a memorable speech The Early Days of AIDS: As I remember them describing his days as Surgeon General during the Reagan administration and how the 1986 Surgeon General’s Report on AIDS Report sent to every one of the 107 million household in America, came to be. We named the award after C. Everett Koop because of his commitment to service and leadership throughout his career, but especially at a time when others were loath to refer to the virus and its disease by name. We asked Dr. Fauci to present the award because of his similar commitment to service and leadership throughout the HIV epidemic. In his presentation, Dr. Fauci commented: “Personally, and to many of us in the medical and public health fields, Dr. Koop is a courageous hero……. Chick Koop…. always seemed to do what was the most correct, honorable, and appropriate thing for the health of the Nation and the world”.

In September 2011, Dr. Koop returned to Washington to present the award to Tony Fauci – an appropriate sequel honoring the mutual respect between the two men from Brooklyn. In his presentation, Dr. Koop commented on Tony’s character, work ethic, and devotion to constantly contribute to the health of mankind – the kind of leader the AIDS epidemic was made for

As we salute Tony Fauci for his Distinguished Service, Vision and Leadership not just in HIV/AIDS but across Infectious Diseases, adding our appreciation for his service to the Nation during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is fitting that we reflect on the award named after the most famous Nation’s Doctor for courage in leadership.

- Veronica Miller

A Tribute

Appreciation and Thanks

UC Berkeley interviewed Dr. Veronica Miller on a recent Forum publication, Factors to Consider in Development of Drugs for Pediatric Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, which was published in the journal, Gastroenterology.

The paper combs through the research to look for the best treatment - a "silver bullet" —to treat pediatric nonalcoholic disease. Read more of the article here.