Pharmaceutical Business review

Gilead Sciences to extend HIV drug study

The study compares elvitegravir to Merck & Co’s drug Isentress, and will now last 96 weeks instead of 48 weeks, reported Bloomberg.com.

Gilead said the extension will allow it to collect longer-term safety and effectiveness data in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, the extension will not affect trials of Gilead’s four-drug ‘quad’ cocktail – a combination of drug candidates elvitegravir and cobicstat along with its already-approved Truvada therapy – into a single tablet.