Gilead Shares Climb Higher After Impressive HIV Drug News

Gilead traders had something to celebrate on Tuesday. The company’s HIV drug has met its goal in four late-stage studies
The company made the announcement on Tuesday that a combination of this experimental HIV drug bictegravi along with already existing therapies have met the goal in four late stage studies.

Gilead evaluated the addition of bictegravir to emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (FTC/TAF), which are already in use to treat HIV.

Three of the studies tested the company’s combination against a regimen containing rival’s GlaxoSmithKline Plc dolutegravir in previously untreated patients. The fourth trial included patients who were already on HIV therapies, but were switched to the Gilead combination.

The Gilead combination was revealed through data to be as effective as what it was being evaluated against. Also impressively no patients had renal events, which is a frequent side effect with HIV treatments.

“If the results point to superiority (rather than non-inferiority) for Gilead’s drug it will likely be taken negatively (for GSK),” Berenburg analysts remarked.

It’ll be in the second quarter that the company plans to submit marketing applications in the United States for the combination and then the third quarter for the EU.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) and have not been compensated for this article.