Gilead’s Viread Reduces HIV Risk for Drug Users in Study

Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Viread pill reduced the risk of injected-drug users contracting the AIDS virus by half in a study in Thailand, a finding that may give public health officials a new weapon to fight HIV’s spread.

In a trial involving 2,413 HIV-negative drug users in Bangkok over five years, those who received Viread daily were 49 percent less likely to get infected with HIV than those who got a placebo, researchers from the Thai Ministry of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today in the Lancet.