GSK shares hit as an­a­lyst touts po­ten­tial of Mer­ck’s ex­per­i­men­tal HIV drug; In­ter­leukin Ge­net­ics slash­es staff; Tril­li­um looks for part­ners

⇨ Gilead and Glax­o­SmithK­line have been get­ting the li­on’s share of the at­ten­tion for new HIV drugs, but Citi’s An­drew Baum says that Mer­ck’s ex­per­i­men­tal EF­dA, with po­ten­tial as a dai­ly pill or twice year­ly in­jec­tion, could beat the lead­ers at their own game. That thought dinged GSK shares, with the phar­ma gi­ant heav­i­ly de­pen­dent on their work in HIV. Reuters has the sto­ry.

⇨ Ge­net­ic test mak­er In­ter­leukin Ge­net­ics $IL­IU has de­cid­ed to slash its staff to a hand­ful of em­ploy­ees af­ter it was un­able to re­struc­ture a debt pay­ment plan. The Waltham, MA-based biotech cut 5 staffers, more than half of its ros­ter, as it shuts down test pro­cess­ing and ex­am­ines its strate­gic al­ter­na­tives. The com­pa­ny has less than a mil­lion dol­lars in cash and $5.6 mil­lion in debt.

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