HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

A newly published clinical trial reported favorable results for a once-daily HIV drug regimen candidate of Gilead Sciences Inc. The three-drug pill contains Gilead's drug Truvada (Viread and Emtriva) and Gilead partner Bristol-Myers Squibb's drug Sustiva.

In the clinical trial, 84 percent of patients taking Gilead's still-unnamed drug achieved a level of 400 copies of HIV genetic material per unit of blood after 48 weeks. In a comparison group taking GlaxoSmithKline's drug Combivir plus Sustiva, 73 percent achieved a similar level.

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Gilead is preparing to ask for Food and Drug Administration approval of the once-daily pill in mid-2006. The company recently released data showing the Truvada-Sustiva combination pill delivered a dose equivalent in the bloodstream to taking the two pills separately.

Glaxo said the single, open-label trial of 517 antiretroviral naďve HIV-positive subjects was of limited importance for making comparisons of products. "It is not unusual to see slightly different rates for certain outcomes across clinical trials," Glaxo said in a statement.

Editor's Note: from the San Francisco Chronicle