Two of the biggest drug companies in the world have joined forces to find a cure for HIV. Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have announced they are going to pool their not inconsiderable resources to further the hunt for new treatments to combat the potentially fatal virus.
The new group, which will be named and launched later in the year, is expected to take a market share of 19% of the HIV treatment market after the two pharmaceutical group’s existing treatments are added together. It is expected that the new group will base its headquarters in London. As GSK have in their portfolio some massive-selling anti-viral drugs such as Kivexa and Combovir, they will take the majority of shares in the new business – 85% -with Pzizer owning the remaining 15%. The group will have a total of 11 medications on the market, with 6 more in the clinical development stage.
Though GSK was once the market leader in anti-viral drugs, in recent years they have slipped to second place, behind U.S firm Gilead. Sales fell by 5% in 2008 and GSK and Pfizer are nervous about the effect that the expiration of patents on their medications will have on their revenues, as generic versions start to hit the market. Clearly, for those suffering from HIV greater competition is only a good thing, lowering prices and putting greater pressure on drugs companies to come up with new and better treatments.
The chief executive of GSK, Andrew Witty, said that the venture would have a “clear focus” on delivering new drugs, building on 20 years’ worth of development of medications to combat HIV and AIDS. He commented, “I think it's one of the finest performances of the pharmaceuticals industry to have transformed an incredibly frightening infectious disease into something more manageable”, before pledging that the new group would take an “enlightened” approach towards making anti-virals available in AIDs-ridden regions in the developing world. HIV charities have greeted the announcement with cautious approval, with the Terrance Higgins Trust, one of the leading AIDS charities, welcoming “any more that will strengthen HIV research and development and benefit people living with HIV.” Their chief executive, Sir Nick Partridge, added that there needs to be “constant advances to stay one step ahead of the virus.”