Gilead and Merck team up to develop a new long-acting HIV drug

News from March 19, 2021 // - On March 15, the US pharmaceutical company Gilead and Merck announced that they have developed a new type of HIV therapy through joint research, which may be able to use a longer interval Medication strategy to help patients replace daily medication.

Although a single daily dose of the therapy can be used to treat HIV patients, compared with the daily dose, the strategy of low frequency, oral dose or infrequent injection may be expected to solve the patient’s priority in choosing therapies, as well as to solve the problem with drugs.

If the drug islatravir is taken once a month, the researchers also want to evaluate whether it can be used as an effective preventive measure to prevent HIV infection; at the same time, Gilead is conducting research on a drug called Lenacapavir.

According to the terms of the agreement, Gilead will pay 60% of the development and commercialization costs.

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The companies aim to combine two of their existing medications to "provide new, meaningful treatment options for people living with HIV," the virus that causes AIDS, the companies said in a statement.