Gilead gets a block­buster boost from an FDA OK of HIV triplet Bik­tarvy — and ri­val GSK fires back

Un­der the gun as an­a­lysts watch the moun­tain of cash gar­nered from its hep C fran­chise melt away, Gilead $GILD got some good news to­day with the FDA’s ap­proval of its big triplet for HIV. And their ri­vals at Glax­o­SmithK­line swift­ly re­tal­i­at­ed, fil­ing a fed­er­al law­suit in the US ac­cus­ing Gilead of in­fring­ing on its HIV patents.

Known as BIC/F/TAF in the trade, com­bin­ing the nov­el bicte­gravir with the back­bone com­bi­na­tion of emtric­itabine/teno­fovir alafe­namide in­to a sin­gle dai­ly pill, the FDA not­ed its ap­proval in the record books. And it will re­place a reg­i­men that once re­quired a mul­ti­tude of pills to keep the virus un­der con­trol.

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