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Gilead Science’s once-a-day HIV
treatment that combines four HIV drugs into one tablet has been approved by the
Food and Drug Administration. Gilead says Stribild, previously known as Quad,
will cost about $28,500 a year.
Stribild is the third once-a-day HIV
treatment Gilead has brought to market, after Atripla in 2006 and Complera in
2011. Stribild does not represent a significant leap medically compared to the
others. In clinical trials that led to its approval, Stribild was shown to be
roughly equivalent to Atripla and to another combination, though without some
of Atripla’s psychiatric side effects. Approximately 88 percent-90 percent of
patients who took Stribild had undetectable HIV in their blood after 48 weeks,
compared to 84 percent taking Atripla and 87 percent taking a combination of
Gilead’s Truvada, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)’s Reyataz, and Abbott’s Norvir.
Stribild is composed of
emtricitabine and tenofovir, which are also found in Atripla and Complera, as
well as elvitegravir and cobicistat - neither of which has been approved for
use independently. What could differentiate Stribild commercially is that
Gilead owns all the ingredients, whereas Atripla includes a BMS drug and
Complera contains a drug from Johnson & Johnson - meaning Gilead must split
profits from those drugs.
Michael Weinstein, president of the
AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which treats more than 100,000 HIV/AIDS patients
worldwide, called Gilead’s pricing of Stribild “shockingly irresponsible.” “It’s
just unsustainable at these levels,” he said.
Gilead spokesperson Erin Rau said
price “reflects a reasonable return on our product development investment.” The
company plans to provide discounts to state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, and
offer programs to help privately insured patients with Stribild’s cost, she
said. Further, Gilead has granted certain Indian generic drug manufacturers
rights to produce Stribild for distribution in poor countries.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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