News (Updated April 22, 2007)
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Tue Apr 17, 2:06 AM ET
A new anti-HIV drug developed by Chinese scientists has been licensed for clinical testing, state media reported Tuesday.
Nifeviroc, which works by inhibiting CCR5, a protein that commonly exists on the surface of human immune cells, is set to become China's first entry-inhibitor for HIV treatment, the China Daily said.
"The CCR5 protein provides a medium through which the HIV virus can infect healthy cells," said Ma Dawei, a researcher with the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry involved in the drug's development, according to the report.
"By deactivating the protein, the virus can be stopped before it enters the cell," Ma said.
The report said early tests have indicated that Nifeviroc, which is taken orally, has promising anti-virus capabilities and few side effects. Therefore, hopes are high that it can provide an effective barrier against the HIV virus.
But scientists said it will be a further three to five years before the drug is ready to be put into clinical use.
An American company is currently involved in the third-phase clinical testing of a drug with a similar mechanism to Nifeviroc and which is expected to become the world's first oral HIV entry-inhibitor, the report added.
Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:36 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. <GILD.O> said on Wednesday
its first-quarter profit rose 55 percent amid higher sales of its drugs for HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS, sending the company's shares up nearly 3 percent.
The biotechnology company reported net income of $407.4 million, or 85 cents per share, compared with $262.7 million, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts expected a profit of 80 cents a share, including stock compensation costs.
Excluding stock compensation costs of $40.2 million, Gilead said it earned 93 cents a share in the quarter.
Revenue rose 48 percent to $1.03 billion, exceeding the $992.7 million forecast by analysts.
Sales of HIV drugs rose 56 percent to $705.1 million, including $345.9 million for the two-drug combination HIV pill Truvada, and $190.2 million for Atripla, a once-daily pill approved by U.S. regulators last July that layers Truvada with Bristol-Myers Squibb's <BMY.N> Sustiva.
First-quarter sales of Viread and Emtriva, the two older HIV drugs used in the combination pills, fell 16 percent to $160.7 million and by 16 percent to $8.3 million, respectively, as patients switched to the newer treatments.
Foster City, California,-based Gilead also collects royalties on sales by Roche Holding AG <ROG.VX> of Tamiflu, an antiviral treatment being stockpiled as a potential treatment for bird flu.
First-quarter royalty and contract revenue more than tripled to $188.2 million, including $167.9 million from Roche for fourth-quarter 2006 Tamiflu sales.
The company said quarterly research and development costs rose to $130.1 million from $88.4 million, while sales and administrative expense rose to $166.6 million from $142.5 million.
Gilead is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its application for ambrisentan, a drug developed by Myogen for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. If approved, the drug could generate annual sales of more than $1 billion, analysts estimate.
Tue Apr 17, 2:13 PM
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India could start providing expensive "second-line" drugs to AIDS patients as early as next year, the country's top official for controlling the spread of the deadly virus told reporters Tuesday.
The drugs -- which cost 12 times as much as older medicines -- will be handed out once India has treated 100,000 AIDS patients with the cheaper drugs under its national programme, the official said.
"We have made a commitment that when we touch 100,000 we will provide second-line" drugs, said National AIDS Control Organisation head K. Sujatha Rao, on the sidelines of the launch of a global report on access to AIDS treatment.
"If tomorrow we touch 100,000, we will provide second-line to anyone who needs it."
The second-line drugs, used when the virus becomes resistant to the first-line medicines, cost 10,000 rupees (239 dollars) per person a month compared to 10,000 rupees per person a year for the older drugs, Rao said.
India, with a population of 1.1 billion people, has the world's highest number of people with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, with 5.7 million infected.
The country began providing generic AIDS drugs through its national health system in 2004 and was treating 55,473 people through the government program by December 2006, according to figures released Tuesday.
Another 15,000 are being treated by charities and private centres, said the report put out by the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS and UNICEF, the United Nations agencies for AIDS and for child welfare.
Indian official Rao put the current numbers on the public health rolls at about 67,000 and said that between 3,000 to 4,000 new patients were being added each month, which could bring India to its target as early as December.
Indian AIDS patients have been lobbying for the national program to include second-line drugs, for which cheap, generic versions are not yet available.
But Rao cautioned that the introduction of the new drugs must be "very steady," criticizing private health practitioners for bypassing the older drugs and immediately prescribing the second-generation medicines to patients.
That practice increases resistance to the newer drugs as well, she warned.