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At a meeting of the FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee, the agency shared the content of the 5-item questionnaire and reviewed the proposed study design with committee members, who were asked to comment – but not vote – on the best path forward for MSM donation policies.
The FDA is “committed to ongoing evaluation of the MSM deferral policy” and remains open to adjusting the policy based on the best available scientific evidence, said Barbee Whitaker, PhD, a lead scientist in the agency’s Office of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Disease
After recruiting 2,000 men who have had sex with men at least once during the past 3 months, the study will aim to identify individuals who have very recently become HIV infected, in order to assess the discriminant function of the set of behavioral questions that are proposed in the questionnaire.
The crux of the problem currently, noted Dr. Whitaker, is identifying those individuals who are very recently infected with HIV. Nucleic acid testing has tightened the window of undetectability considerably, but the current 12-month deferral window after men have had sexual contact with other men is designed to ensure safety of the blood supply.
Social justice concerns have been raised about the blanket deferral, said Dr. Whitaker; the behavioral questions in the pilot study will ask about the number of different sexual partners men have had within the past 1, 3, and 12 months and ask about the type of sexual contact (oral sex, or anal penetrative or receptive intercourse). The questionnaire also asks about sex with a partner known to be HIV positive, condom use, and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
The FDA will ask for proposals to conduct the study with an eye to having sites in such cities as Washington, Atlanta, and Miami, which have high incidences of HIV, to improve chances of early detection.
The behavioral questionnaire is not seen as an immediate replacement for the 12-month deferral policy, the FDA made clear in its briefing documents and in discussion with the committee. Instead, its utility will be in the information gleaned from the pilot study and a follow-on that may include several hundred thousand individuals. These data should provide “population-based evidence upon which to base regulatory decisions to ensure blood safety,” she said.