Gilead Truvada switch study
This article was originally published in Pharmaceutical Approvals Monthly
Executive Summary
A study in treatment-experienced HIV patients suggests patients switching from GlaxoSmithKline's Combivir (lamivudine/zidovudine) to Gilead's Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir) achieve significantly more viral suppression, Gilead reports Nov. 17. In the Phase IV COMET (Combination of Efavirenz and Truvada) study, presented at the European AIDS Conference Nov. 17 in Dublin, 76% of switched patients had viral load below 50 copies/mL compared to 59% at baseline (p<0.001); efavirenz (Bristol-Myers Squibb's Sustiva) was the background therapy in the study. Gilead has been highlighting Truvada's building sales momentum. Combivir continued to be the market leading nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor in the third quarter, but Truvada sales were up 32%, putting it at the number three slot for the NRTI class (Pharmaceutical Approvals Monthly November 2005, p. 5)...