LOS ANGELES, July 23, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), a global clinical trials network focused on HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and emerging infectious diseases, today announced the Publication of “Pitavastatin to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease in HIV Infection” in the New England Journal of Medicine. Today’s publication coincides with the symposium “The REPRIEVE trial: Developing a Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Strategy for People Living with HIV,” taking place today at IAS 2023, the 12th IAS Conference on HIV Science, in Brisbane, Australia. The publication and presentation report the key findings from REPRIEVE that participants who took pitavastatin calcium (a daily statin pill that lowers cholesterol) reduced their risk of major adverse cardiovascular events by 35 percent compared with those receiving a placebo over a median duration of five years of follow up.

“REPRIEVE is an extraordinarily important study because it addresses the need for interventions to prevent cardiovascular events in people living with HIV,” said ACTG Chair Judith Currier, M.D., M.Sc., University of California, Los Angeles. “The ACTG is honored to have played a pivotal role in REPRIEVE – 52 of our sites enrolled more than half of all participants and ACTG investigators played key leadership roles in the core REPRIEVE team – and we are excited about the potential these findings have to improve care for people living with HIV.”

Today’s publication and presentation describe data on 7,769 participants living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy with low-to-moderate risk for Cardiovascular Disease who were between the ages of 40 and 75 years old. Participants were randomized to receive either pitavastatin calcium or placebo every day. Participants were 65.2 percent non-white and 31.1 percent female and enrolled at 145 sites in 12 countries across Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa.

The trial’s primary endpoint was the development…