Californian biotechnology company ViroLogic and healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline have signed a three-year, $7.5 million service agreement to support drug discovery and development efforts for a new class of HIV drugs.
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ViroLogic’s novel HIV resistance testing technology will be used across GSK’s virology portfolio, including its entry inhibitor program, where a ViroLogic assay will be used to identify patients for clinical trials and to monitor response to drug treatment during the trials.
Entry inhibitors are a promising new treatment option for HIV-infected individuals.
“We have become the preferred partner of industry leaders, like GSK, to provide them with the drug resistance technology they need for the discovery and development of new HIV therapeutics, such as entry inhibitors,” stated Bill Young, ViroLogic’s chairman and CEO. “Our tropism assay can help both pharmaceutical companies and the FDA to effectively monitor clinical studies of entry inhibitors, offering visibility into the effectiveness of this exciting new class of drugs.”
ViroLogic has developed technologies to assess drug resistance among a number of antiretroviral therapies in both preclinical and clinical studies.