Gilead's new HIV drug more successful than Glaxo's dolutegravir

The results of a mid-stage clinical trial show that bictegravir, a next-generation integrase inhibitor manufactured by Gilead Sciences, was more successful in suppressing the HIV virus in newly diagnosed patients than dolutegravir, rival company GlaxoSmithKline's drug. These are the first results to support Gilead's claims about the drug's effectiveness.

97% of newly-diagnosed patients treated for 24 and 48 weeks with a combination of bictegravir and Gilead's TAF-based backbone had undetectable suppressed HIV viral loads. The combination of GlaxoSmithKline's dolutegravir and Gilead's TAF backbone produced a 94% rate of undetectable HIV suppression after 24 weeks, and a rate of 91% after 48 weeks of treatment.

GlaxoSmithKline has seen gains in its market share due to dolutegravir, and Gilead intends to use bictegravir, which will be sold in combination with the TAF backbone as a once-daily pill, to regain market share. The drug is expected to deliver 14% of Gilead's total revenue by 2020.