OUR HIV EXPERTS

With an impressive career focused for more than three decades on HIV clinical care and research, Dr. Charles (Chuck) Hicks brings to ViiV Healthcare invaluable experience, a passion for improving the lives of people living with HIV, and a commitment to putting patients first. Chuck’s dedication to HIV care developed early in his career, when as a medical intern he first encountered persons with what would later be identified as AIDS. This early exposure to a new disease profoundly affected his career path, leading him to a career providing medical care for people living with HIV for over 35 years—an adventure he describes as exciting and exhilarating but also at times dismaying and disturbing. In his role now at ViiV, Chuck feels fortunate to be able to apply his considerable expertise to further improving contemporary antiretroviral therapy and to ensuring access to those therapies for people living with HIV.
 

Current Role

As Global Medical Director, Chuck provides worldwide scientific and medical expertise and governance for ViiV initiatives, including providing input into clinical trial design, addressing medical and safety topics, exploring opportunities for investigator-sponsored research, and supporting patient access. His keen insight derives from decades of experience in HIV care and high-impact HIV clinical research, and from his many relationships in the worldwide HIV scientific and medical community. In addition to his full-time ViiV role, Chuck will continue another of his passions as a part-time mentor at the University of California at San Diego, working on key HIV projects to explore topics other than antiretroviral therapies.

Experience

Prior to ViiV, Chuck served as Director since 2014 of the well-known Owen Clinic, the HIV Medicine clinic at the University of California, San Diego. Before that, he was on faculty for more than 20 years at Duke University Medical Center, where he served as mentor, clinician, and clinical research scientist, and advanced to tenured Professor of Medicine while authoring more than 100 peer-reviewed papers. While Chuck felt privileged to be involved in the care of people living with HIV from the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, he found the lack of available treatments in the early years challenging, and this spurred him to undertake the intensive HIV treatment research program he developed while at Duke. Chuck also served in the US Army, leaving his military role in 1994 when he joined Duke. During his time with the US Army, Chuck held military staff physician and teaching positions at Walter Reed and the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, specializing in sexually transmitted diseases. He has been an investigator in many antiretroviral treatment studies over the years, including work with the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), and has served on a wide range of review groups and advisory panels including recent membership in the DHHS Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines Panel. One of Chuck’s professional passions is mentorship, and he has mentored dozens of students and young doctors in the care of people living with HIV and in clinical research.

Education

Chuck earned his medical degree in 1979 from George Washington University in Washington, DC, and went on to complete an Internal Medicine residency at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco, and two fellowships in Medical Science and Infectious Diseases, both while at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. His work in Infectious Diseases focused on his interest area of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. He is a graduate of the US Military Academy in West Point, NY.

Personal Interests

Chuck lives in San Diego, California, where he enjoys spending time with his wife of 38 years and their three adult children and spouses. With all three of their children living in California and with two of them in San Diego, the family has great fun sharing frequent meals and events together. Chuck also enjoys fine wines, and admits to being a huge fan of Duke University sports teams, especially the basketball team.