GSK share price outperforms as ViiV unveils upbeat trial results

Shares in GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) have climbed into positive territory this Friday as the group’s majority-owned ViiV Healthcare unit posted upbeat data from two late-stage trials evaluating a two-drug HIV treatment. The news follows the FTSE 100 group’s full-year results last month.

As of 08:36 GMT, GSK’s share price had added 0.53 percent to 1,517.40p, outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.79 percent lower at 7,100.83 points. The group’s shares have added more than 12 percent to their value over the past year, as compared with a flat Footsie.

ViiV posts upbeat results

GSK announced in a statement this morning that its ViiV Healthcare unit had presented data from two late-stage trials which showed that the unit’s long-acting, injectable two-drug regimen of cabotegravir and rilpivirine has similar efficacy to daily, three-drug oral treatment in adults living with HIV-1 infection. The data was presented at the 2019 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle, Washington.

“We now have positive results from two pivotal phase III studies demonstrating that this long-acting, once-monthly injectable regimen has similar efficacy, safety and tolerability to a daily oral three-drug regimen for the treatment of HIV,” John C. Pottage, Jr., M.D., Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of ViiV Healthcare, commented in the statement, adding that if approved, “the treatment would give people living with HIV one month between each dose of antiretroviral therapy, changing HIV treatment from 365 dosing days per year, to just 12”.

The company plans to submit regulatory applications authorities later this year.

Analysts on GSK

Shore Capital trimmed its rating on GSK to ‘hold’ today, while Liberum Capital continues to see the company as a ‘hold’. According to MarketBeat, FTSE 100 drugmaker currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating and an average price target of 1,518.15p.

As of 09:23 GMT, Friday, 08 March, GlaxoSmithKline plc share price is 1,517.40p.