{"id":40280,"date":"2021-04-01T07:34:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T07:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=40280"},"modified":"2021-04-01T08:29:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T08:29:49","slug":"gilead-and-merck-to-collaborate-on-long-acting-hiv-combination-of-lenacapavir-and-islatravir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/40280","title":{"rendered":"Gilead and Merck\/MSD to collaborate on long-acting HIV combination of lenacapavir and islatravir"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Simon Collins, HIV i-Base<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

On 15 March 2021, in a joint press release, two leading research-based pharmaceutical companies \u2013 Merck\/MSD and Gilead \u2013 announced they would be collaborating on long-acting HIV combinations. [1]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Each company has extremely promising compounds in development that need to be used in combination with similar long-acting drugs. Working in partnership should lead to much faster development than each company waiting to develop combinations independently.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

From Merck\/MSD, this includes islatravir, a highly potent NRTTI with the potential for daily, weekly and monthly oral formulations in phase 3 studies and an annual implant in phase 2.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

From Gilead, this includes a long-acting capsid inhibitor being dosed as an infusion every six months that recently presented phase 2 results.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Both companies with be involved in development sharing costs and potential income 60:40 (Gilead:Merck\/MSD). Gilead will lead in the US with Merck\/MSD leading in the EU and rest of the world. Each company will have options to use other selected HIV drugs being developed by the partner company.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Both compounds are also being studied independently for use as PrEP, where the need to use combinations are currently not thought to be needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

comment<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n

This is good news. Collaborating to use the most promising compounds from each company always seemed a more effective and faster way to develop new treatment options. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It also probably makes good commercial sense compared to the time needed for each company to develop a combination independently.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

References<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
    \n
  1. Joint press release. Gilead and Merck announce agreement to jointly develop and commercialize long-acting, investigational treatment combinations of lenacapavir and islatravir in HIV. (15 March 2021).
    \n<\/span>https:\/\/www.gilead.com\/news-and-press\/press-room\/press-releases\/2021\/3\/gilead-and-merck-announce-agreement-to-jointly-develop-and-commercialize-longacting-investigational-treatment-combinations-of-lenacapavir-and-islatr<\/a> (Gilead)
    \n    https:\/\/www.merck.com\/news\/gilead-and-merck-announce-agreement-to-jointly-develop-and-commercialize-long-acting-investigational-treatment-combinations-of-lenacapavir-and-islatravir-in-hiv\/<\/a> (Merck).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This report was first posted on 15 March 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Simon Collins, HIV i-Base On 15 March 2021, in a joint press release, two leading research-based pharmaceutical companies \u2013 Merck\/MSD and Gilead \u2013 announced they would be collaborating on long-acting HIV combinations. [1] Each company has extremely promising compounds in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antiretrovirals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}