HIV drug being developed by GSK and others shows positive results

An experimental treatment for HIV being developed by GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Shionogi Co. reduced the virus in more patients than another treatment that is currently the top-selling AIDs medicine.

Eighty-eight percent of patients who took the drug, dolutegravir, saw the virus suppressed, compared to 81 percent of participants who took a single tablet regimen of Atripla, Gilead Sciences AIDs drug. Atripla generated $3.2 billion in revenue last year.

GSK and its partners announced the results for dolutegravir on Wednesday.
Dolutegravir was jointly created by Shionogi and GSK and while it was developed in the United States and the United Kingdom, where GSK is based, a significant amount of the work on the drug was done at its U.S. headquarters in Research

Triangle Park. The Medicine Development Leader for dolutegravir, Garrett Nichols, is based in RTP, said GSK spokeswoman Melinda Stubbee.

GSK has a long history with HIV treatments. The first AIDS pill, known as AZT, was developed by a GSK predecessor company, Burroughs-Wellcome.