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BOSTON (Reuters) – Gilead Sciences Inc said on Wednesday that its experimental retrovirus take elvitegravir evidenced as trenchant as a take prefabricated by Merck & Co in a late-stage clinical trial.

The effort showed that after 48 weeks of treatment, dosed once daily, elvitegravir was as trenchant as Merck's Isentress, which is dosed twice regular in compounding with other antiretroviral drugs.

Gilead's shares rose 2.7 proportionality to $41.53 in hour trading.

Discontinuation rates caused by adverse events were same in both arms of the study, the consort said. Gilead plans to submit the accumulation for show at a scientific word after this year.

Elvitegravir is fashioned to country the knowledge of the retrovirus virus to integrate into the genetic touchable of manlike cells.

The take is also conception of a four-medicine retrovirus preventive being matured by Gilead famous as the "Quad." Last assemblage a mid-stage effort showed the Quad entireness as substantially as Gilead's widely utilised Atripla three-drug tablet.

Atripla combines Emtriva, Viread and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's Sustiva.

Data from Phase III, or late-stage, Quad trials, which investors are watching closely, are due first in the ordinal quarter of this year.

"We view this as beatific programme for Gilead and conceive this accumulation helps de-risk the key Quad Phase IIIs," said Brian Abrahams, an shrink at author Fargo, in a research note.

Gilead licensed elvitegravir from Nihon Tobacco Inc in March 2005. Gilead has exclusive rights to develop and change the take everyplace eliminate Japan.

Results of the Phase III elvitegravir effort showed that after 48 weeks of communication 59 proportionality of patients taking elvitegravir achieved direct reductions in levels of retrovirus in the blood, famous as viral load, compared with 57.8 proportionality of those who received Isentress, which is also famous as raltegravir.

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