Viiv Healthcare launches Triumeq in Japan

Viiv Healthcare, the joint HIV venture by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Shionogi (TYO: 4507), has launched Triumeq (abacavir, dolutegravir and lamivudine) in Japan.

Triumeq was approved by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for the treatment of HIV infection on March 16, 2015. It is being co-promoted by Viiv and Shionogi, with distribution and sales operations carried out by GSK.

It is the company’s first fixed-dose combination tablet for a once-daily single-pill regimen combining dolutegravir, an integrase inhibitor, with the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors abacavir and lamivudine. Triumeq received FDA approval in August 2014. Dolutegravir, one of the drug’s three active ingredients, was approved as Tivicay on March 24, 2014 and launched on April 17 of the same year, with Viiv and Shionogi co-promoting the product.