About the Authors

Kathleen Listiak Vincent

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

klvincen@UTMB.EDU

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

John A. Moss

Roles Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Chemistry, Oak Crest Institute of Science, Monrovia, California, United States of America

Mark A. Marzinke

Roles Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Medicine (Division of Clinical Pharmacology), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Sheikh Zayed Tower, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Craig W. Hendrix

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Medicine (Division of Clinical Pharmacology), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Peter A. Anton

Roles Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Center for HIV Prevention Research, Division of Digestive Diseases and UCLA AIDS Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Manjula Gunawardana

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Chemistry, Oak Crest Institute of Science, Monrovia, California, United States of America

Lauren N. Dawson

Roles Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Trevelyn J. Olive

Roles Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Richard B. Pyles

Roles Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Marc M. Baum

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Chemistry, Oak Crest Institute of Science, Monrovia, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: KLV and RBP are consultants to ABL, Inc, to expand the ovine preclinical model; this was disclosed to UTMB Conflict of Interest, with money paid directly to KLV and RBP. CWH declares current financial interests in NIH, Gates, and Viiv/GSK funding for clinical research managed through employer (Johns Hopkins University). CWH was a consultant for 1-2 days in the past year to ViiV/GSK for product development of potentially competing product application; this was disclosed to Johns Hopkins Conflict of Interest, money paid directly to CWH. CWH is a current consultant to UCLA scientists for product development of potentially competing product application; this was disclosed to Johns Hopkins Conflict of Interest, money paid directly to CWH. JAM and MMB declare a paid salary for full time employment as faculty members at the Oak Crest Institute of Science. As faculty members JAM and MMB are investigators (NIH U19 Program) on research grants to Oak Crest from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that funded the research in this manuscript. Additionally, as a faculty members, JAM and MMB are/were principal investigators or co-investigators on grants that funded other research into HIV prevention and intravaginal ring/subdermal implant drug delivery. The research grants not directly related to the research that is the subject of this manuscript were funded by NIH, International Partnership for Microbicides, and USAID (funding through the Population Council). Oak Crest receives funding for research in which JAM and MMB are participants. JAM and MMB are also co-inventors on patent applications that include aspects of the intravaginal ring device that was used in the clinical trial described in this manuscript. The following authors are former salaried employees of Auritec Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: IB, SAC, JMC Jr., and MG. During time of the study, IB and JMC Jr were employees of Auritec and participated in manufacturing the vaginal rings. Prior to August 2016, MG was a 50/50 shared employee for both Oak Crest and Auritec. SAC later performed CVL analysis as an Oak Crest employee. They were no longer employees during sample/data analysis and manuscript preparation. None of these authors have ownership of Auritec stocks or shares, hold Auritec Board membership, or are senior personnel on Auritec research grants. MG is an inventor on active patent applications as an Oak Crest employee. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.