Gilead said to be in late-stage trials for oral COVID therapy
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Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD), the developer of intravenously delivered COVID-19 therapy Veklury (remdesivir), is reportedly enrolling patients for two late-stage trials for an oral version of the treatment.
The Foster City, California biotech has decided to proceed with late-stage development after the drug known as obeldesivir indicated promising results from its first human study involving healthy volunteers.
Data from the 70-subject Phase 1 trial demonstrated that obeldesivir (previously known as GS-5245) led to sufficient concentrations in the blood and supported its use without regard to food, Reuters reported citing Gilead (GILD).
Two people in the obeldesivir group and one in the placebo group reported headaches, and there were no serious side effects, the company said ahead of a presentation on study data at a medical event in Copenhagen later this month.
Once metabolized, the drug acts similarly to Veklury, designed to target viral replication by inhibiting the microbe’s RNA polymerase.
Gilead (GILD) plans to test a twice-daily obeldesivir tablet for five days in late-stage trials, which, if successful, will give it an advantage over developers of existing oral COVID therapies, Pfizer (PFE) and Merck (MRK)/ Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
Pfizer’s (PFE) Paxlovid has a more rigorous dosing regimen of three pills taken twice a day for five days, as does Merck’s (MRK) Lagevrio, which is required to take as four capsules twice a day for five days.
Read: Even assuming no growth, Gilead (GILD) is trading at a bigger discount to value compared with some of its larger biotech rivals, Seeking Alpha contributor Sanjay Chandiramani argues.