First ever all-in-one AIDS drug in the works

Two drug companies announced Monday that they will collaborate on developing the first all-in-one, once-a-day pill to treat HIV infection--a long-sought goal that would make it much easier for patients to stick with their medication. Currently, the best AIDS treatment requires patients to take two to four pills a day. Less than a decade ago, many patients had to take 25 to 30 pills a day, often at precise times and under specific conditions such as with food, making it extremely difficult for patients to stick to the complex schedule. Missing doses makes it easier for the virus to mutate and become resistant to medication. In the first collaboration by competing AIDS drug makers, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Gilead Sciences Inc. formed a joint venture to test and market a single pill combining three widely used medicines from two different classes of AIDS drugs. Because the three individual drugs already are on the market, the once-a-day combination could be approved and on sale as soon as the second half of 2006, said David Rosen, a spokesman for Bristol-Myers Squibb. "To have it all in a single pill is terrific," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Associated Press. The combination pill will include Sustiva, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb. It also will include two AIDS drugs made by Gilead Sciences of Foster City, Calif.: Viread and Emtriva. The latter two drugs are from the same class of AIDS drugs, but they block copying of the AIDS virus at two different points early in its replication cycle. Sustiva is from a different class of drugs and attacks the virus later in the cycle. "It's the first time ever that two companies with competing products have worked together," said Michael Saag, director of the AIDS Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "This is something patient advocates and a lot of physicians have been pushing for for over a decade." Fauci also said such partnerships are crucial. "We hope it's the beginning of future collaborations," he said.