Chloe Meave Orkin

Chloe Orkin is Professor at Queen Mary University of London and consultant physician at Barts Health NHS Trust. She has provided HIV care in the wards and clinics in London for 16 years, worked in HIV in South Africa and provided training on the national ART programme in Botswana. Chloe leads an award-winning clinical trials unit.  She directs the SHARE research collaborative for health equity, focusing on inclusion (for example, of pregnant women) in trials. She has led delivery of COVID-19 vaccine and treatment research across five hospitals. 

Her specialist interest is novel therapeutics. She was the principal investigator on more than 60 clinical trials that have led to the licencing of 24 new drugs in HIV, hepatitis and COVID-19. Chloe is the global lead author for eight new drugs, including the first-ever long-acting HIV treatment (cabotegravir/rilpivirine). She co-authored four British HIV Association (BHIVA) guidelines on ART, hepatitis co-infection, malignancy and routine monitoring, and has published on the effects of COVID-19 on ethnically diverse populations and female researchers. She has also led two high-profile blood-borne virus testing campaigns (“Going Viral” and ”TestMeEast”), which were covered in national and international news. Her research has changed testing practice in the UK and is referenced in the EU testing guidelines.

In 2016-2019, Chloe was Chair of BHIVA, focusing on advocacy, providing medical evidence and collaborating with policy and community organizations to successfully challenge discriminatory laws against pilots, migrants and prisoners. She has improved BHIVA’s international standing by establishing symposia on standards of care at four international conferences. She has chaired the BHIVA conference committee, is on the Programme Committee for HIV Glasgow and IAPAC and the Scientific Committee for EACS, and has been an abstract reviewer for four international conferences. Chloe introduced junior doctor co-chairs at BHIVA conferences to develop leadership and established a social media committee, consisting of junior doctors and community members who were empowered to tweet from the BHIVA account.

Chloe is the current President of the Medical Women’s Federation (2021-2023), the largest UK organization of medical women, and Academic Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at her medical school. She is the regional lead for engagement of people of colour for the National Institute for Health Research. 

Chloe was the first medical leader to say “zero risk” and is a vocal champion of the U=U campaign. She is on the Department of Health gender pay-gap implementation panel.