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(Alliance News) - GlaxoSmithKline PLC on Thursday said ViiV Healthcare reported positive headline results from its global phase III ATLAS-2M study.
ViiV Healthcare is a specialist HIV company majority owned by GSK, with Pfizer Inc and Shionogi Ltd as shareholders.
The study was designed to demonstrate the non-inferior antiviral activity and safety of long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine administered every eight weeks compared to every four weeks over a 48-week treatment period, the drugmaker explained.
ViiV Healthcare's cabotegravir and Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica's rilpivirine is used for the treatment of HIV.
Glaxo said the study met its primary endpoint, showing that the long-acting regimen of cabotegravir and rilpivirine, injected every two months, was non-inferior to cabotegravir and rilpivirine administered every month at week 48.
Overall safety, virologic response and drug resistance results for the every-two-months injectable regimen were consistent with results from the phase III ATLAS study, the FTSE 100-listed company added.
"We are excited to report that for the first time since the AIDS epidemic started more than 30 years ago, our ATLAS-2M study has demonstrated that it is possible to maintain suppression of the HIV virus with an injectable regimen containing two drugs administered every two months," said Kimberly Smith, head of Research & Development at ViiV Healthcare.
"This is further progress in our efforts to reduce the number of medicines a person living with HIV must take while also reducing the frequency of treatments," Smith added.
Glaxo shares were trading 0.7% lower on Thursday morning at 1,673.80 pence each in London.
