Large-scale trial of vaginal ring that releases anti-HIV drug announced at health summit in London

"This week, at the Pacific Health Summit in London, the final large-scale trial was officially launched of a vaginal ring which women can wear and forget about -- at least for a month at a time -- while it releases an HIV virus-killing drug called dapivirine," the Guardian reports. "If successful, it could also be combined with hormonal contraception," the newspaper notes. The phase III clinical trial, "launched by the International Partnership for Microbicides, is already recruiting women in South Africa, Rwanda and Malawi" and "will involve 1,650 women -- enough to prove definitively whether it works," according to the newspaper (Boseley, 6/13).