Gilead launches grant programmes for research in liver diseases

Gilead Sciences announced the launch of five new global grants programmes to continue to support investigator-sponsored research in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV), HCV and HIV co-infection, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The programmes will accept applications from around the world for projects that seek to address pressing unmet patient needs in liver disease, including improving screening and linkage to care, simplifying HCV testing and treatment, developing innovative referral pathways to help patients with NASH access care, addressing gaps in HBV care for special populations and understanding PSC epidemiology.

The new grant programmes are:

• HCV STAT (Simplification and Test and Treat Strategies toward HCV Elimination)
  This programme will fund approximately fifteen projects with a total commitment of US $10M focused on simplifying HCV care delivery and implementing test and treat strategies to overcome barriers to patient care. Applications will be accepted from April 11 to June 30, 2019.
  
  STAT is the latest addition to the LEGA-C platform, “Local Elimination programmes Leading to Global Action in HCV” and includes the ongoing programmes CITE, SCALE, CHIME, and NoCo. To date, Gilead has committed $50M to support 79 elimination projects around the world through LEGA-C.

• HIV/HCV NoCo (NoCo-Infection)
  In the third installment of NoCo, this programme will fund approximately six to eight projects with a total commitment of US $3M focused on investigating strategies to link patients living with HCV and HIV co-infection to HCV treatment. Applications will be accepted from May 1 to June 14, 2019.

• NASH Models of Care
  This programme will fund approximately eight to ten projects with a total commitment of US $4M focused on investigating care pathways between multidisciplinary providers for screening, identifying, and helping to refer high-risk patients living with NASH to appropriate medical care. Applications will be accepted from June 3 to July 15, 2019.

• HBV CARE (Linkage to CARe & Epidemiology in Special Populations)
  This programme will fund approximately six projects with a total commitment of US $1M focused onimproving linkage to care among underserved population andanalyzingor identifying data gaps inHBV epidemiology in specific demographics or geographies. Applications will be accepted from August 1 to September 15, 2019.

• PSC PACE (PrimAry Sclerosing Cholangitis Epidemiology)
  This programme will fund up to five projects with a total commitment of US$1M focused on identifying gaps in PSC epidemiology data and improving understanding of the cascade of care. Applications will be accepted from September 16 to October 11, 2019.