Professor Chloe Orkin, MBBCH, MSc Infectious Disease LSHTM FRCP

Profile

Chloe has been a Consultant Physician at Barts Health NHS Trust since 2003 and was appointed by Queen Mary University in 2019. She leads an internationally renowned therapeutic trials unit that has made major contributions to the development and licensing of around 20 novel therapies. She specialises in long-acting therapeutics and is global lead author for the FLAIR study which evaluated the first-ever long-acting injectable HIV therapy and was published in the NEJM. Chloe led the practice-changing blood-borne virus testing campaign Going Viral.

Her research focuses on inclusive study design and the ways of including and engaging women, pregnant women, racially minoritised people and older adults in clinical trials.

During mpox she established an international research collaboration (SHARE-net) that delivered four impactful clinical manuscripts which have changed international guidelines. She was an advisor to WHO Europe on mpox.

As past Chair of the British HIV Association (2016-19) she challenged discriminatory legislature and is considered a global medical leader for the U=U campaign.

Chloe has led both nationally and locally within the field of Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). She was past President of the Medical Women’s Federation and the former Academic EDI lead for the Faculty of Medicine and Athena Swan Chair. She has been named in the top 100 LGBTQ+ influencers (2020; Diva magazine) and in the Disability Power Influencer Top 100 (2023; Shaw Trust). She speaks and is interviewed regularly on podcasts on leadership, sexism, homophobia and ableism. She has published on inequities in research and in the workforce.

Research

Research Interests:

Professor Orkin's research interests lie in clinical trials in the development of novel anti-retroviral therapy and novel anti-retroviral strategies; and blood-borne virus testing.

Publications

Orkin C, Arasteh K, Górgolas Hernández-Mora M, Pokrovsky V, Overton ET, Girard PM, Oka S, Walmsley S, Bettacchi C, Brinson C, Philibert P, Lombaard J, et al. Long-Acting Cabotegravir and Rilpivirine after Oral Induction for HIV-1 Infection. The New England Journal of Medicine, 2020 Mar 19;382(12):1124-1135.

Orkin C, DeJesus E, Sax PE, Arribas JR, Gupta SK, Martorell C, Stephens JL, Stellbrink HJ, Wohl D, Maggiolo F, Thompson MA, Podzamczer D, Hagins D, Flamm JA, Brinson C, Clarke A, Huang H, Acosta R, Brainard DM, Collins SE, Martin H; GS-US-380-1489; GS-US-380-1490 study investigators. Fixed-dose combination bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide versus dolutegravir-containing regimens for initial treatment of HIV-1 infection: week 144 results from two randomised, double-blind, multicentre, phase 3, non-inferiority trials. Lancet HIV, 2020 Jun;7(6):e389-e400.

Cevik M, Haque SA, Manne-Goehler J, Kuppalli K, Sax PE, Majumder MS, Orkin C. Gender disparities in coronavirus disease 2019 clinical trial leadership. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2021 Jul;27(7):1007-1010. 

Apea VJ, Wan YI, Dhairyawan R, Puthucheary ZA, Pearse RM, Orkin CM*, Prowle JR*. Ethnicity and outcomes in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 infection in East London: an observational cohort study. BMJ Open, 2021 Jan 17;11(1):e042140.

Orkin C, Flanagan S, Wallis E, Ireland G, Dhairyawan R, Fox J, Nandwani R, O'Connell R, Lascar M, Bulman J, Reeves I, Palfreeman A, Foster GR, Ahmad K, Anderson J, Tong CY, Lattimore S. Incorporating HIV/hepatitis B virus/hepatitis C virus combined testing into routine blood tests in nine UK Emergency Departments: the "Going Viral" campaign. HIV Medicine. 2016 Mar;17(3):222-30.