China-developed product could become first long-acting anti-HIV drug worldwide

A domestically-developed, long-acting injectable HIV drug has been put forward for approval by the China Food and Drug Administration, and will become the first of its kind to be generally available if approved, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

Research into the drug, now known as albuvirtide started in 2003. It entered the third and last phase of clinical trials in February 2014.

China’s Frontier Biotechnologies, which is developing the drug, said back in the summer that a New Drug Application had been accepted by the China Food and Drug Administration in July and reported that a Phase III clinical trial (TALENT Study) of its lead product albuvirtide met primary objectives based on an interim analysis, and could become the first long-acting anti-HIV drug worldwide.