Gilead Sciences gets US nod to sell Stribild pill

Research-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc., said it has secured approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell its Stribild pill which combines four HIV medicines into one, the news reports said.

The combination HIV drugs will help in simplifying the patients’ treatment regimens.

The Stribild pill comprises of 2 new drugs and 2 previously approved compounds that make the California-based company’s Truvada HIV therapy.

An analyst working with Deutsche Bank Securities in New York said, “The new medicine will help make up for the potential $5 billion in the lost sales when Gilead’s other HIV drugs lost patent protection starting in 2018 and face generic competition.”

The Stribild pill is expected to generate $4.7 billion in the peak annual sales. The analyst estimated that about 35% of the new patients will use the drug worth as much as $29,000 a year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “About 1.2 million people in the U.S. have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS and about 50,000 people become infected each year.”  

Other drugs that make up Stribild are elvitegravir that interferes with enzymes HIV needs to multiply and cobicistat which inhibits an enzyme that metabolizes certain HIV drugs to prolong the effect of elvitegravir, the news reports said.

A study sponsored by Gilead found Stribild worked as well as Atripla and patients experienced few abnormal dreams, dizziness and anxiety.

Gilead Sciences, Inc is a research-based biopharmaceutical company engaged in discovering, developing and commercializing innovative medicines in areas of unmet medical needs. The world’s biggest maker of AIDS drugs has a vast product portfolio and increasing portfolio of investigational drugs.