Gilead’s twice-yearly lenacapavir for HIV PrEP bests Truvada

US antiviral specialist Gilead Sciences’ (Nasdaq: GILD) shares closed up 2.7% at $83.16 yesterday, after it releases positive results of an interim analysis from a second pivotal Phase III clinical trial investigating the use of the company’s twice-yearly injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor, lenacapavir.

Lenacapavir reduced HIV infections by 96% compared to background HIV incidence (bHIV). There were two incident cases among 2,180 participants, corresponding to 99.9% of participants not acquiring HIV infection in the lenacapavir group. Twice-yearly lenacapavir also demonstrated superiority to once-daily Truvada (emtricitabine 200mg and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300mg; F/TDF).

Lenacapavir’s resoundingly positive clinical results from PURPOSE-2 follows similarly unprecedented outcomes from PURPOSE-1, increasing optimistic that Gilead can appreciably mitigate its powerhouse Biktarvy (bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide) 2033 LoE impact through greater conversion of the HIV treatment market to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), according to Leerink Partners analysts.