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Gilead Sciences Inc said on Wednesday that its experimental HIV drug elvitegravir proved as effective as a drug made by Merck & Co in a late-stage clinical trial.
The trial showed that after 48 weeks of treatment, dosed once daily, elvitegravir was as effective as Merck’s Isentress, which is dosed twice daily in combination with other antiretroviral drugs.
Gilead’s shares rose 2.7 percent to $41.53 in midday trading.
Discontinuation rates caused by adverse events were comparable in both arms of the study, the company said. Gilead plans to submit the data for presentation at a scientific conference later this year.
Elvitegravir is designed to block the ability of the HIV virus to integrate into the genetic material of human cells.
The drug is also part of a four-medicine HIV pill being developed by Gilead known as the “Quad.” Last year a mid-stage trial showed the Quad works as well as Gilead’s widely used Atripla three-drug tablet.
Atripla combines Emtriva, Viread and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s Sustiva.
Data from Phase III, or late-stage, Quad trials, which investors are watching closely, are expected beginning in the third quarter of this year.
“We view this as good news for Gilead and believe this data helps de-risk the key Quad Phase IIIs,” said Brian Abrahams, an analyst at Wells Fargo, in a research note.
Gilead licensed elvitegravir from Japan Tobacco Inc in March 2005. Gilead has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the drug everywhere except Japan.
Results of the Phase III elvitegravir trial showed that after 48 weeks of treatment 59 percent of patients taking elvitegravir achieved target reductions in levels of HIV in the blood, known as viral load, compared with 57.8 percent of those who received Isentress, which is also known as raltegravir.
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Four anti-HIV drugs inhibit a retrovirus recently linked to prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), say U.S. researchers.
If further investigation proves that the retrovirus xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) causes prostate cancer or CFS, these HIV drugs may be an effective treatment for the two conditions.
In this study, researchers from the University of Utah and Emory University/Veterans Affair Medical Center tested how effectively 45 compounds used to treat HIV and other viral infections worked against XMRV. Raltegravir was the most effective, and three other drugs — L-00870812, zidovudine (ZDV or AZT), and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) — also prevented XMRV replication.
“Our study showed that these drugs inhibited XMRV at lower concentrations when two of them were used together, suggesting that possible highly potent ‘cocktail’ therapies might inhibit the virus from replicating and spreading,” Raymond F. Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics and chemistry and an investigator with the Center for AIDS Research at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Atlanta VA, said in a news release.
“This combination of therapies might also have the added benefit of delaying or even preventing the virus from mutating into forms that are drug-resistant,” Schinazi added.
“These results offer hope to infected persons, but we are still at the early stages of our understanding of the potential link between XMRV and these diseases,” Dr. Ila R. Singh, an associate professor of pathology at the University of Utah Medical School, said in the news release.
The study was published April 1 in the journal PLoS One.
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A natural chemical in bananas may help protect women against sexual transmission of HIV, U.S. researchers report.
In laboratory tests, they found that a lectin called BanLec was as potent as two current HIV drugs. Lectins — sugar-binding proteins found in plants — can identify and attach to foreign invaders. By binding to the sugar-rich HIV-1 envelope protein gp120, BanLec blocks HIV’s entry into the body.
The finding, published in the March 19 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, suggests that BanLec could become a less expensive and highly effective new component of vaginal microbicides, according to the University of Michigan Medical School researchers.
“The problem with some HIV drugs is that the virus can mutate and become resistant, but that’s much harder to do in the presence of lectins,” study author Michael D. Swanson, a doctoral student in the graduate program in immunology, said in a news release from the school. “Lectins can bind to the sugars found on different spots of the HIV-1 envelope, and presumably it will take multiple mutations for the virus to get around them.”
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Waning international donor support for the fight against AIDS is a threat to a decade of progress in HIV treatment, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Thursday.
“Some of the spotlight has come off of HIV largely due to the fact that there has been tremendous success in scaling up. There are four million people alive on ARVs (anti-retrovirals) that otherwise wouldn’t have been,” MSF spokeswoman Sharonann Lynch told AFP.
“The dirty secret is that donors want to be let off the hook for what is lifelong and unfortunately, right now, expensive treatment.”
The charity, in a new 12-page report, warns that a retreat in donor support could have “catastrophic implications”.
“Both political commitment and funding allocations are waning,” it said.
“The most glaring sign of the decreasing political commitment to HIV-AIDS is a major funding deficit,” the report added.
A “dangerous trend” underway in global health policy arena had seen calls for foreign aid to be diverted from HIV to other health priorities but MSF said cutting AIDS aid was not the answer.
“This killer disease is an ongoing emergency that requires dedicated resources at the national and international levels,” it said.
Funding cuts in Uganda had resulted in HIV positive patients being turned away and now-resolved financial shortages in South Africa saw treatment disrupted and uptake of new HIV positive patients.
While four million people are on anti-AIDS drugs in the world, some six million people are still in need of treatment, MSF said.
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Saturday urged his fellow Americans to get tested for HIV in an effort to reduce transmission of the virus that causes AIDS.
“On this 14th commemoration of National HIV Testing Day, I urge Americans to take control of their own health — and protect those they love — by getting tested for HIV and working to reduce HIV transmission,” Obama said in a statement.
“While its impacts are not evenly spread — infection rates are particularly high among gay and bisexual men, African Americans and Latinos — when one of our fellow citizens becomes infected with HIV every nine-and-a-half minutes, the epidemic affects all Americans,” he said.
Obama noted that of the estimated 1.15 million people infected with HIV in the United States, more than 230,000 — one in five — do not know they are infected.
The US president last month unveiled a plan to commit 63 billion dollars over six years to battle chronic global health crises, including AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, a continuation of a landmark initiative launched by his predecessor George W. Bush.
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