GlaxoSmithKline HIV drug ‘comparable to Kalestra’

GlaxoSmithKline has released the preliminary results for a clinical study involving Lexiva, its antiretroviral drug targeted at HIV patients, which it developed in conjunction with Vertex.

The study, which involved 887 patients, found that Lexiva given in conjunction with ritonavir, another antiviral drug, is comparable to Kaletra, Abbott Laboratories’ widely-used anti-HIV drug. It found that 73 per cent of patients taking Lexiva had effectively suppressed the replication of the virus after 48 weeks of dosing. In comparison, 71 per cent of Kaletra patients exhibited the same outcome.

A statement read: “Lexiva/ritonavir was compared to Kaletra in this study due to Kaletra’s position as the preferred HIV protease inhibitor in HIV treatment guidelines developed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the International AIDS Society.”

“Based on these results from this study, researchers have concluded that Lexiva appears to be comparable to Kaletra and has met the primary endpoints of this non-inferiority trial,” it concluded.

Earlier this month Glaxo announced that it had awarded Cobra Biomanufacturing a contract to manufacture and develop two prospective HIV vaccines at Cobra’s Keele and Oxford facilities. The vaccines use non-human primate adenovirus technology, developed by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and licensed exclusively to Glaxo.

Cobra’s contract comes as part of a collaboration between Glaxo and the International Aids Vaccine Initiative, which exists to speed the development of an HIV vaccine.

Dhiverse, a UK-based HIV/Aids charity, estimates that some 300 women infected with HIV give birth each year in the UK.

© Adfero Ltd