Research on AIDS pill Quad successful

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Gilead Sciences Inc’s four-drug experimental HIV pill called the Quad worked as well as a regimen containing protease inhibitor Reyataz (atazanavir) in the second pivotal trial of the drug, the company said on Monday.

But while the trial succeeded, it did not show that the experimental pill was superior to the Reyataz regimen.

The trial found that 90% of patients taking the Gilead drug achieved target levels of HIV in the blood, compared with 87% of patients on ritonavir-boosted Reyataz, which is sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

The four-drug pill — which combines experimental integrase inhibitor elvitegravir and boosting agent cobicistat with Truvada, a pill consisting of Gilead’s older HIV drugs Emtriva (emtricitabine) and Viread (tenofovir) — is seen as the biotechnology company’s most important pipeline product.

Ref and Read more: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749993?sssdmh=dm1.720308&src=nldne

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