Exciting news is expected in the world of healthcare as ViiV Healthcare, in collaboration with Shionogi, prepares to showcase the preclinical studies’ results of a, potentially, ground-breaking way of fighting HIV.
Just over a year ago, GlaxoSmithKline’s ViiV Healthcare announced a collaboration with its long-term partner and partial owner, Shionogi, to develop a brand-new HIV treatment. The partnership between the British and Japanese pharmaceuticals had already begun preclinical studies by the time the announcement of the partnership was made in September of 2021 and emphasised that human studies would begin in 2023. Should the results confirm what GSK and Shionogi have promised, the fight against HIV, which claimed the lives of 650,000 people worldwide in 2021 alone, could be entering a new phase, with treatment that is both reliable and accessible.
S-365598, the inhibitor that is being developed by the two companies, is an expansion on two drugs that are already established in the fight against HIV, cabotegravir and dolutegravir, both designed by ViiV Healthcare and taken by millions of people globally.
GSK have said the treatment prevents the HIV virus from replicating through blocking the enzyme it releases. This makes the treatments more accessible as it is longer lasting, potentially lasting 3 months, than previous iterations of HIV treatments.
The multinational pharmaceutical also added the possibility of developing to a twice-yearly treatment, which could massively boost the chances of developing resistance to new virus mutations.
Dr John Keller, a member of the Board of Directors at Shionogi, said: “Many people living with HIV and those vulnerable to acquiring HIV have concerns about daily oral medication, such as the daily reminder of living with HIV, HIV status disclosure and consistency of adherence.
Long-acting HIV medications have the potential to bring considerable benefit to these individuals.”
The multi-million-dollar partnership would also aim to make its mark in a healthcare market associated with the virus which is currently dominated by Gilead Sciences’ daily oral pill, Truvada, taken by roughly one in five people diagnosed with HIV.