Pfizer, Glaxo launch firm specializing in HIV drugs

Drugmakers Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline launched Tuesday a new, independent company specializing in HIV treatments, naming it ViiV Healthcare, with worldwide headquarters in London.

Pfizer initially will have a 15 percent share of the new company, whose formation was first announced in April. But as more Pfizer HIV drugs reach market, the expectation is that the company's share of the joint venture will increase.

"The GSK/Pfizer HIV joint venture is an interesting solution to pharma's problems of scale and funding a competitive pipeline in niche areas," said the In Vivo blog in an online commentary.

Among the various treatments that ViiV Healthcare expects to make available worldwide is the Pfizer drug Selzentry, discovered in Sandwich, England, and developed there and at the company's Groton and New London research-and-development campuses.

Selzentry and the other nine HIV drugs that ViiV Healthcare currently has on the market generate sales of about $2.5 billion. In addition, the company has seven other potential HIV targets, five of which are in midstage development.

"Collaboration will be key," said Dominique Limet, the company's chief executive, in a welcome video posted on ViiV Healthcare's new Web site, http://www.viivhealthcare.com. "We will be seeking opportunities with other companies."

ViiV Healthcare, with U.S. headquarters in North Carolina, hits the ground running, already holding a 19 percent share of worldwide sales for HIV treatments, according to Reuters news service. But drugmaker Gilead is the current Goliath of the HIV market, with a 31 percent share.

An estimated 33 million people worldwide have AIDS, a once life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that has been turned into a manageable disease thanks to new drugs.

Glaxo developed the first AIDS drug, called AZT, and it has a more robust portfolio than Pfizer. But Glaxo has been steadily losing ground to Gilead, which has newer HIV-fighting medicines.

Pfizer's small share of the HIV market masks the fact that it has some promising drugs in early development to go along with Selzentry, a treatment just approved for front-line use against AIDS.

"Selzentry will be a key driver and lever for our growth," Limet said in an interview with Reuters. "It will allow us to maintain our competitiveness and stabilize, hopefully, over time our market share in front of Gilead."

Limet said in a separate statement released as part of the ViiV Healthcare announcement that HIV treatments are becoming more difficult to deliver and that a new approach may be needed. He pointed out that people with HIV still die about 10 years younger than those without the disease.

"Much of our historic effort has been led by the virus - a chase of science," Limet said. "This must continue, but we must also listen and better understand the needs of people living with HIV."