Mylan has agreed a deal with Gilead Sciences to sell several of its infection treatments in India.
US-based Gilead will utilise Mylan’s experience in its home nation of India to sell the HIV treatments Viread, Truvada and Stribild and the fungal infection treatment AmBisome. Mylan can also sell Viread in its other indication as a treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus.
The deal expands on a partnership agreed in 2006 between the two companies where Mylan was able to manufacture and sell generic versions of Gilead’s HIV therapies in India and 111 other countries affected by the virus.
Gilead’s portfolio of HIV treatments has performed well in traditional markets, with expectations high for Truvada as the first drug approved in the US to reduce the risk of HIV and for Stribild as a four-in-one combination treatment, which can be taking in one pill once a day.
Stribild’s simple regimen is down to its combination of elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, tenofovir disoproxil, each of which works in a different way to treat the virus.
One of those ingredients, tenofovir disoproxil, is the active ingredient in Viread, while Truvada combines tenofovir disoproxil and emtricitabine.
During the first nine months of 2013 Truvada reached sales of $2.3bn, Viread had sales of $692m and Stribild achieved revenues of $335m.
The deal with Mylan will expand the reach of these drugs even further, with India thought to have a population of 2.4 million living with HIV.
Gilead’s executive vice president of corporate and medical Affairs, Gregg Alton explained the decision to use Mylan.
“The appointment of Mylan as our branded medicine business partner in India is a result of their strong knowledge of the Indian healthcare system and demonstrated capabilities of supporting and distributing antiretroviral therapies.,” he said.