Single-tablet HIV regimen Stribild—the new quad combo pill from Gilead Sciences—is non-inferior to both Atripla and to ritonavir-boosted atazanavir plus Truvada in first-time treatment takers, the BusinessWire reports. Jürgen Rockstroh, MD, a professor of medicine at the University of Bonn, Germany, made an oral presentation of two 96-week Phase III studies comparing these drug regimens at the 11th International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection (HIV11) in Glasgow. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August 2012 for treatment-naive people with HIV, Stribild is comprised of elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine and tenofovir.

One study compared 348 treatment-naive patients taking Stribild with 352 taking Atripla (efavirenz, emtricitabine, tenofovir). Findings showed that, after 96 weeks of treatment, 293 of those on Stribild, or 84 percent, had an undetectable viral load, compared with 287, Atripla patients, or 82 percent. Meanwhile, the study comparing 353 Stribild patients with 355 taking the ritonavir-boosted atazanavir plus Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir) regimen saw that 293, or 83 percent, of those taking Stribild and 292, or  82 percent, of those taking Truvada were undetectable at 96 weeks. For all three therapies, a similar percentage of participants stopped the regimen due to adverse events: Five percent of Stribild patients in both studies, 7 percent of Atripla patients, and 6 percent for those on the Truvada regimen.

To read the BusinessWire report, click here.

To read Gilead’s release, click here.