Geneva – Unitaid is deeply saddened by the death of David Cooper, a leading HIV clinician who was inaugural Director of the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society, at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney.

Cooper, who was also a former president of the International AIDS Society, died in Sydney on Sunday after a short illness. He was 69.

The Kirby institute is implementing a Unitaid-funded grant to enable the scale-up of optimized second-line antiretroviral therapy for HIV patients for whom first-line treatment has failed.

Unitaid’s Executive Director Lelio Marmora said Professor Cooper’s untimely death was a deep loss. « David Cooper was a man of vision and an inspirational leader in the fight against HIV. We have lost a distinguished colleague and a tireless campaigner in the HIV community. »

UNSW said in a statement on Monday that under David’s leadership, the Kirby Institute grew from a national centre with a handful of staff  into what is now a globally renowned research institute  working at the forefront of the latest discoveries and innovations in HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections.

In unveiling the Unitaid grant in 2017, Cooper said that a trial was « exploring whether an alternative regimen of treatment is clinically superior or equal to the currently recommended treatments. Results have the potential to impact the treatment of millions of people living with HIV. »