Multiplo Tp/HIV Self-Test

January 23, 2026 updated by: Unity Health Toronto

A Study to Evaluate the Accuracy, Usability and Readability of the Multiplo® TP/HIV Antibody Self-Test Performed by Observed Intended Users in Canada and the Impact of Peer-led HIV and Syphilis Care Among People Experiencing Homelessness in Toronto

To help reach the undiagnosed living with HIV and/or syphilis in Canada, self-tests for HIV and Syphilis may have substantial utility for increased identification of infected individuals through their relative ease of use and portability, as well as their ability to deliver rapid, actionable results while the care provider still has access to the patient. MedMira Laboratories Inc. (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) has developed a point-of-care (POC) test to detect HIV and Syphilis antibodies in fingerstick blood samples that is under final review by Health Canada for use by trained Healthcare professionals. A self-test version of this test, with simplified instructions for use has been developed for investigational studies. The goal of the following study sponsored by REACH Nexus is to provide evidence that untrained lay persons / intended users can perform the Multiplo Tp/HIV Self-Test without any increased risk of obtaining erroneous results.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This is a cross-sectional study that employs both observational and interview-based methods. All participants will read the instructions for use (IFU) and conduct the Multiplo TP/HIV Self-Test. They will not be provided any training prior to use. A trained Observer will observe and document the use of the test and independently read the lay user self-test result. 400 participants will also be provided with ten (10) mock devices with different results and asked to interpret those results (i.e. strong positive, weak positive, negative, invalid with no control line and no test dots, and invalid with no control line and positive test dots). The participants will then complete a questionnaire to share their opinions on usability and label comprehension of this test.

All participants will also have a venous blood sample collected for testing of serum at a central laboratory with a 4th generation HIV EIA and standard syphilis serology that will serve as the Comparator Methods (CM). All self-tests will be confirmed using laboratory-standard HIV and syphilis testing algorithms. The sensitivity and specificity of the self-test results will be calculated relative to the "clinical truth" of the participants' HIV and syphilis status determined by the comparator methods.

All enrolled Participants will voluntarily provide medical history and the specimens according to Section 4, Study Procedures at Visit 1 (Day 1), for the testing with the Multiplo TP/HIV Self-Test. Persons with reactive syphilis self-tests may be counselled for immediate treatment.

All Participants will have a laboratory test done for performance comparison and will be instructed to return to the clinic for a follow-up visit (Visit 2), two (2) weeks later to obtain their laboratory test results. Participants may also have a separate Point-of-Care (POC) test for HIV and/or syphilis conducted on-site as part of the clinic's standard of care testing, outside of the protocol.

  • Subject recruitment
  • Registration and confirmation of eligibility (enrolment questionnaire)
  • Administering informed consent
  • Review of inclusion/exclusion criteria and enrollment
  • Venous blood specimen collection for laboratory testing
  • Participant brought to a private room with site observer
  • Observer instructs participant on study process (not testing procedure)
  • Participant given one Multiplo Tp/HIV Self-Test package
  • Participant performs the self-test and interprets the results
  • Observer then interprets the participant's self test results
  • Observer interviews participant with self-test questionnaire
  • Participant given the option of participating in the Mock Result Interpretation exercise
  • Participant returns to the site for the laboratory results in approximately 2 weeks

MOCK RESULTS INTERPRETATION A minimum of 400 participants across all study sites will complete device interpretation of contrived (mock) results from prepared devices. Devices will include contrived reactive, weakly reactive, negative, and 2 types of invalid results with their reactivity blinded to the participant.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

900

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • British Columbia
      • Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 1M8
        • Recruiting
        • Cool Aid Community Health Centre
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Chris Fraser, MD
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5B 1G3
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5B 1J3
        • Recruiting
        • Women's Health in Women's Hands
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Megan Saunders, MD, CCFP

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Are ≥18 years of age.
  • Can speak/read/write English or French.
  • Have presented for voluntary testing for HIV and/or syphilis infection in the clinic or community-based setting.
  • Are willing to participate in the study site's standard of care HIV and syphilis counselling and testing program and receive the study site's standard of care test results.
  • Are willing to be a participant in the study.
  • Can provide informed consent i.e. understand and sign or instruct the Observer to sign the informed consent form.
  • Can complete the required testing on the allocated testing day.
  • Are willing to provide the necessary fingerstick and venipuncture blood for use in the study protocol testing methods.
  • Are of unknown HIV and syphilis status (last HIV and syphilis negative test must be a minimum of 3 months prior).

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Do not meet the inclusion criteria.
  • Are known HIV and/or syphilis positive.
  • Have ever tested positive for syphilis or HIV at any time.
  • Have any experience in conducting rapid point-of-care tests on patients for HIV, syphilis or any other infectious disease.
  • Are familiar with the Multiplo® TP/HIV Self-Test.
  • Are investigator site employees or immediate family members of sponsor or investigator sites.
  • Have participated in any prior, or concurrent trial of HIV and syphilis self-tests.
  • Are a practicing medical healthcare professional (doctor, nurse or HIV counsellor that performs HIV testing with Rapid Tests).
  • Any condition which, in the opinion of the Observer, would make the participant unsuitable or unsafe for enrolment or could interfere with the completion of the assessment, consent form and questionnaire etc. or bias the outcome (e.g. being unable to see/read by forgetting to bring reading glasses, being intoxicated, acute sickness, visibly distressed).

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Screening
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Participants with unknown HIV and syphilis status
All participants will self-test fingerstick blood testing with the test device, along with venous blood testing at a central laboratory using licensed gold standard comparator methods.
Device: Multiplo TP/HIV Antibody Test
The Multiplo TP/HIV Antibody Test (MedMira Laboratories Inc., Halifax, NS), ["Multiplo TP/HIV Test"] is a single use, rapid, vertical-flow in vitro qualitative immunoassay for the detection of antibodies to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Type 1/Type 2 and Treponema pallidum (Syphilis) in human fingerstick blood. The Multiplo® TP/HIV Test is intended as an aid in the diagnosis of HIV1/2 and Syphilis infections in patients with signs and symptoms of HIV and syphilis. The test is intended for use by trained personnel in medical facilities, clinical laboratories, emergency care situations, and physicians' offices as an in vitro diagnostic device capable of providing results in less than five minutes. The Multiplo TP/HIV Test has not yet sought approval for self-testing. All required pre and post-test counselling guidelines must be followed in each setting in which the Multiplo TP/HIV Test is used. Results are read visually.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percent positive and negative agreement of the Multiplo® TP/HIV Self-Test to the Participant's HIV and/or syphilis status confirmed by the lab results.
Time Frame: 6 months

The primary outcome for the study will be the percent positive and negative agreement of the Multiplo® TP/HIV Self-Test to the Participant's HIV and/or syphilis status confirmed by the lab results.

The percentages for positive and negative agreement will be calculated with the two-sided 95% confidence intervals for both as follows:

  • Positive Agreement= ((n) HIV or syphilis Multiplo reactive results )/((n) HIV or syphilis positive status)×100
  • Negative Agreement= ((n)HIV or syphilis Multiplo non reactive results )/((n) HIV or syphilis negative status)×100 Percent positive and negative agreement will be calculated for each analyte (HIV or syphilis) separately.
6 months
Descriptive analysis of sociodemographic characteristics of people experiencing homelessness who are accessing HIV and Syphilis testing
Time Frame: 6 months
The embedded study aims to understand the sociodemographic and health profile of PEH accessing WHIWH. Descriptive analysis of sociodemographic variables, risk behaviours, HIV/syphilis testing variables will be completed.
6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percent of correctly interpreted mock devices by self-test participants.
Time Frame: 6 months
Participants will answer a series of questions after they complete the Multiplo® TP/HIV Self-Test assessment and Interpretation of Results - Mock Devices. Participants will be given a panel of contrived devices and asked to interpret the results of the contrived devices. Participant answers will be compared to known results from the assigned panels.
6 months
Rates of Positive HIV and Syphilis and rates of first time testers among people experiencing homelessness
Time Frame: 6 months
Number of PEH who have tested positive for HIV and/or syphilis in the laboratory test. Number of PEH tested for HIV and/or syphilis for the first time through the project. Number of PEH who have been tested for HIV and/or syphilis before the intervention and which type of service.
6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Unity Health Toronto

Collaborators

University of Toronto

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 12, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

April 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 10, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 18, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 28, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

December 4, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 23, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • REACH Multiplo ST-01

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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