Johnson & Johnson
Friday's approval allows Edurant to be used in combination with other pills, but it probably will get most of its sales as a single pill. Patients aren't keen about popping multiple pills a day if they don't have to.
The approval, however, paves the way for the single pill that combines Edurant with Gilead Sciences'
Breaking into the HIV market is fairly difficult. Doctors tend to be creatures of habit, prescribing regimens they have experience with. Edurant was only shown to be as effective as Bristol-Myers Squibb's
But that won't stop Gilead's marketing machine. The HIV specialist sells Atripla, a combination of Sustiva and Truvada, but the Edurant and Truvada combination product offers Gilead better economies than Atripla. Gilead gets supplies of Edurant to make the combination product at a discount, unlike Sustiva, where it has to pay full price.
Once the Edurant-Truvada combination is approved, I expect Gilead will start promoting it heavily. I doubt it'll ever reach the $2.9 billion that Atripla brought in last year, but a billion-dollar product like Merck's
In an indication where drug cocktails are king, having friends in this business is the best way to get ahead.
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