More than a year ago, Gilead Sciences and Bristol-Myers Squibb entered into a joint venture to develop and commercialize a once-daily fixed-dose combination of drugs against AIDS. Last week, in an article that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the companies report positice Phase III clinical trials on a pill that contains the three most-prescribed drug regimen for newly diagnosed HIV patients:

• Viread(R) (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate)
• Emtriva(R) (emtricitabine)
• and Sustiva(R) (efavirenz)

The companies expect to file a New Drug application with the FDA this year.

"I think it's a huge thing these companies are going to do," said Nelson Vergel, an AIDS treatment activist in Houston. "If they give it at the right price to developing countries, it's going to become the main treatment in the world."

Well, the manufacturers may have a way of alleviating the costs:

The inventors (of Viread) have agreed to waive their right to a royalty on sales of products containing tenofovir in the 97 developing countries served by the Gilead Access Program to ensure the product can be offered at a no-profit price in parts of the world where the AIDS epidemic has hit the hardest.

But would that be enough? The companies have not yet named the pill, nor quoted a price.

Sources: WashingtonPost and Gilead