Wei Kang walked into the office early in the morning, and Wen Renlong rushed over to report.
"Boss, the first and second phase clinical trial reports of Duanailing are out."
"Toxicological studies have found that it has no serious adverse effects on normal people and AIDS patients, and it can effectively inhibit the binding of viruses to CCR5 receptors. The effect is as always, outstanding like me."
He raised his head and his tone was high and passionate, like a big rooster crowing.
"Through the treatment of 40 adult patients with HIV, these patients took the drug alone at different doses for 10 days, and the HIV virus in their bodies was significantly reduced. The patients who used the highest dose had the most obvious reduction, reaching more than 95%."
"After the patient stopped taking the drug, there was no rebound in the short term, which is enough to prove the efficacy of the drug."
"Previously treated patients and patients who had failed antiretroviral therapy responded similarly."
"Some minor adverse reactions are found in about 5% of patients, including diarrhea, fever, loss of appetite, etc., but these symptoms often disappear after 1-3 days of continued treatment."
"Since patients take the drug for a relatively short period of time, long-term treatment effects need to be studied in phase III clinical trials."
"In short, this drug has very high activity, low cytotoxicity, excellent pharmacodynamics, no potential drug-drug interactions, extremely high safety, and broad prospects for treating HIV infection."
Wei Kang nodded with satisfaction: "Thank you for your hard work. In this case, the Phase III clinical trial can start immediately."
"Many pharmaceutical companies are now developing the same type of drugs, and several are already in the clinical stage. You should hurry up."
Wen Renlong smiled and said confidently: "The only CCR5 antagonist drug that has truly become a first-line drug is maraviroc, which was launched more than ten years ago. However, this drug has serious side effects and has many restrictions on its use, so It’s not really widespread.”
"Don't worry, boss, our drugs are more effective, have fewer side effects, and can eliminate the HIV virus more thoroughly."
"We will choose Maraviroc as the control group in the Phase III clinical trial. The contrast will be sharp and it will kill it completely."
"Okay, then it's up to you."
In the afternoon of that day, Sanqing Group announced the news of the successful development of specific HIV drugs.
Even the name "Broken Love Spirit" was not left out.
Soon, the entire network was shocked.
"Sanqing has successfully developed a new and effective drug to eliminate the HIV virus!"
"When HIV is no longer a terminal disease, will patients still have something to hide?"
"Humankind has finally conquered the beast of AIDS!"
"The appearance of the 'Broken Love Spirit' finally made those innocent people raise their heads!"
One piece of news appeared quickly on the Internet, and related topics rushed to the top of the hot search list in just an hour.
All those small and fresh movies and TV series that spent a lot of money on promotion have been suppressed.
Netizens were shocked when they saw such news.
"Damn it, Sanqing has finally taken action against HIV?"
"It's great. I don't have to worry about getting infected anymore."
"I told you the story upstairs. Why are you worried about being infected? If ordinary people don't do anything bad, the probability of being infected is extremely low."
"I still remember the previous hot search. There was a little brother who passed the public examination. It was originally a happy event, but the physical examination showed that HIV was detected. People like this should not be affected in the future."
"This kind of person is indiscreet and deserves to be found out. Those who are infected because of donating blood are pitiful. I have seen reports on the AIDS village. It is so pitiful. The whole village, most of them old, weak, sick and disabled, are all infected. Oh, it’s simply a sin.”
"With the medicine Sanqing, things like the AIDS village should no longer happen."
"The most pitiable thing is the babies who were born with AIDS. They did nothing. When they came into this world, they were hit head-on. It's so cruel."
"These people are very pitiful. In the case of the edited baby that was sentenced before, the parents were both carrying the HIV virus and they made great efforts to give birth to a healthy baby. If this drug was available, they would not have done that. .”
"Except for those who messed around, the others who were infected are all innocent and pitiful. They are in great need of such special drugs to save their lives."
"What qualifications do those who get sick from messing around have to take this medicine? They all asked for it. If they can be cured now, they will definitely become more messy in the future. It is really impossible to prevent it."
"The hospital has to protect the privacy of this kind of person and cannot tell relatives. I have a friend whose husband was infected. I kept it from her during the premarital examination, but ended up being infected after marriage. It's so tragic."
"In the future, AIDS will be a common infectious disease, just like hepatitis A and B. Then patients won't need to hide it everywhere, which seems to be a good thing."
"I hope so. Everyone, please be careful. Maybe someone around you will be exposed soon and say that they are HIV carriers. I kept it a secret from them before, but now that it can be cured, let's see how they keep it a secret."
"I hope so. Anyway, if I see this kind of person in the future, I will still stay away from him."
It can be seen from the reactions of netizens that AIDS has become frightening to people after more than ten years of unremitting publicity by the media.
The main reason is the high concealment and high infectivity of the HIV virus. The incubation period of HIV in the human body is as long as 8 years. During this period, people can live without any symptoms for many years.
After some people live a worry-free life, they like to seek excitement and are more open to certain things. As a result, they are prone to fall into the trap accidentally.
Some people are infected by some carriers of revenge against society. After these people contract the disease themselves, due to the pessimism caused by the terminal illness, they are prone to a revengeful mentality. Why should they be fine while others are fine?
If someone passes it on to him, he will pass it on to others as well. If he is unlucky, everyone will be unlucky together.
With such thoughts spreading everywhere, it is really hard to guard against.
This also leads to people’s fear of this disease being higher than other terminal diseases.
After all, common terminal diseases are not contagious, so they don't have to worry.
This is why AIDS has become a public health issue, and one million infected people across the country can receive free drug treatment at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While netizens were discussing it heatedly, the news quickly spread overseas.
Sanqing's every move has always been watched by many competitors.
Generally speaking, when pharmaceutical companies are laying out hot topics and investing in new drugs, they must keep abreast of the latest news in the industry in order to more intuitively view the competitive landscape of a certain product.
Especially in the highly competitive pipeline track, various pharmaceutical companies are working hard to launch their own new drugs targeting the same target.
This means a collision of drugs of the same type. If your opponent develops it before you and passes clinical marketing first, you may completely seize all the opportunities.
Especially for some breakthrough first-of-its-kind drugs, the first ones developed can often go through the green channel and quickly pass the review and market, while latecomers do not have such treatment.
Often the first drug can be quickly launched in a few months, but the second drug has to go through the conventional channels and takes two or three more years to be launched.
Not only will they fall one step behind and lose the opportunity to seize the market, sometimes pharmaceutical companies will even abandon the project and terminate clinical trials if they see that the other party's advantages are too great. In this way, all the early R&D investment will be completely wasted.
The field of anti-AIDS drugs is undoubtedly extremely competitive.
The target of CCR5 antagonists is also quite popular.
Therefore, the first companies that are unable to sit still are the companies developing CCR5 antagonists.
Especially those pharmaceutical companies that have already achieved results and entered the clinical stage.
Eagle Country, Merck Headquarters.
A board meeting is being convened urgently.
All directors felt very helpless when they saw the news in front of them.
After fifteen years, Sanqing has developed another CCR5 antagonist?
This is nothing, but it collides with a new anti-HIV drug of the company.
As a small molecule antagonist targeting the CCR5 target, Merck’s new drug has entered Phase 2 clinical trials.
The data in all aspects are excellent, and after a series of structural modifications, adverse reactions have been greatly reduced.
The company has always been optimistic about it and hopes to use this drug to make a great turnaround in the field of anti-AIDS drugs.
In the global AIDS drug market, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), Merck, and Johnson & Johnson are the most important companies. Although Gilead is the absolute overlord, it is following the trend. The two GSKs fought hard.
But Merck can get a share of the more than 30 billion US dollars anti-AIDS drug market, and it also has several drugs with good efficacy.
It’s just that the presence in the global market is very low.
CRR5 is indeed a popular target, and there are many new drugs under development, but none of them have entered clinical phase III.
It is already rare for their drug to enter Phase 2 clinical trials.
However, this Sanqing is simply a freak.
Suddenly, a new anti-AIDS drug was developed and entered the third phase of clinical trials.
They simply don’t follow martial ethics, and as a result, their new drugs will collide with Sanqing’s new drugs.
Looking at the clinical phase II data disclosed by Sanqing, the directors were all silent.
Even a blind person can see the efficacy of this new drug, which is absolutely inferior to their new drug with the same target.
Also, if they can develop new drugs that are comparable to Sanqing, they will not be defeated by Gilead.
Merck's chief pharmaceutical expert sighed: "I'm sorry, the data on this drug are perfect. It seems that we lost this time."
"I suggest giving up this CCR5 antagonist. We have several new anti-AIDS drugs under development targeting different targets. We can put resources into other projects. Maybe it will be more promising." A director said. .
"However, in this case, Gilead is on top, and Sanqing is constantly chasing after us. We are caught in the middle, which is very uncomfortable, especially since we are relatively far behind. It is very likely that we will watch Sanqing take away our market. Grab them all."
"The market for anti-AIDS drugs, sooner or later we're going to lose it completely."
"For this kind of specific drug, the FDA in various countries will definitely simplify the approval process and put it on the market as soon as possible. We don't have much time left."
"They are already in the third phase of clinical trials, but we are only in the second phase. Are we going to take the lead?"
"Maybe the company should consider changing its research and development direction."
The directors were all talking about it.
In the end, they made the decision to abandon this clinical phase 2 drug.
Also paying attention to the three new drugs are GSK, Gilead, BMS, Johnson & Johnson and other companies.
These top pharmaceutical companies all have a lot of territory in the anti-AIDS drug market, and they are all very shocked by this.
Seeing that in this crowded market, a new strong player is about to be added to stir up the market structure.
They felt a deep crisis instantly.
As one of the overlords of anti-AIDS drugs who just sit back and watch the clouds rise and fall, GSK said that this little brother is a bit fierce.
This knife was thrust hard from behind, and it might not be able to catch it.
HIV drug treatment has continued to evolve for decades, from the 1.0 era of single drugs, to the 2.0 era of cocktail therapy, to the 3.0 era of complete cure in the future, fully demonstrating the vigorous development of human science and technology.
From the time HIV was first discovered to the FDA's approval of the first treatment drug, people did not wait long.
In the 1980s, GSK developed the first weapon for humans to fight HIV and passed rapid review and was put on the market, giving HIV-infected people hope of survival for the first time.
At this point, HIV drug treatment has officially begun the 1.0 era.
However, the first generation of antiretroviral drugs was obviously still relatively backward and could not keep up with the changes in HIV, so patients would still get sick and die quickly.
After the 1990s, various new anti-HIV mechanisms gradually emerged, and a series of new HIV drugs such as protease inhibitors and fusion inhibitors began to increase rapidly.
HIV treatment suddenly got rid of the dilemma of being limited in single-drug treatment options.
In this context, the team of Chinese scientist Professor He proposed a new combination drug administration strategy - highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which was later commonly known as cocktail therapy.
Because it can both prevent the HIV virus from multiplying and prevent the development of drug-resistant viruses in the body, cocktail therapy has quickly become a standard treatment for HIV.
This was a revolutionary breakthrough. GSK seized the opportunity and quickly followed up. It was the first to launch a three-combination therapy, which reduced the disease mortality rate by more than half. It was unparalleled in the field of HIV treatment drugs.
In addition to GSK, Gilead, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and other pharmaceutical giants have also quickly joined the layout of HIV cocktail therapy.
At this point, HIV drug administration has changed from multiple times a day to once a day, to once every half month, which has greatly improved treatment compliance.
More importantly, HIV treatment has also completed a perfect transformation from the confused period of the 1.0 era to the 2.0 era.
HIV gradually becomes a manageable chronic disease.
Data show that during this period, global HIV deaths also dropped from 1.9 million to nearly 1 million. In other words, evolving HIV drugs have saved millions of lives.
In this process, GSK is a pioneer in HIV therapy. It has the first HIV treatment drug and the first cocktail therapy, establishing its absolute dominance in the early HIV drug market. In the HIV market, almost only multinational pharmaceutical giants have entered the market. Dao, firmly suppressing the old opponents one by one.
However, GSK did not sit firmly on the top spot for a long time. In 2006, after Gilead launched Atripla, it relied on its good clinical efficacy and low cost to overtake GSK in just a few years. Defeated.
Since then, Gilead has officially replaced GSK as the global leader in the HIV market.
With the emergence of Biktarvy in 2018, it swept the world and reached sales of US$7.3 billion in the second year of its launch, becoming the king of HIV drugs.
Bituvi helped Gilead once occupy more than 60% of the global HIV drug market share, and it still maintains a high growth rate of 8%. At present, no drug can shake its position.
In comparison, GSK's situation in recent years has seemed a bit miserable. Although it still has several blockbuster drugs, its growth is hardly optimistic, and its sales fell by 30% last year.
As a veteran giant, GSK would not choose to sit still and wait for death. Instead, it quickly developed a new long-acting injectable drug that can be injected once a month.
The script seems so familiar again. GSK has mastered the revolutionary technology and took the lead. However, this time GSK has become the challenger, and Gilead has become the responder.
Both sides can be said to have lost their minds.
At this time, although Sanqing’s new HIV drug has arrived late, it has a promising future.
In one fell swoop, anti-AIDS drugs have been brought into the era of cure 3.0.
Although it still requires long-term medication like a chronic disease, it can indeed be cured and the virus can be completely eliminated from the body.
The 1.0 and 2.0 eras of HIV treatment have become history, and the 3.0 era has begun.
After decades of long fighting, HIV has finally transformed from a super cancer into a controllable chronic disease now.
This is the progress of science and the luck of mankind.
(End of chapter)
