Gilead Sciences (www.gilead.com)and Merck & Co.(www.merck.com) established an agreement for the distribution of Atripla™, a once-daily, single tablet regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults, to developing countries. Atripla will be made available in these countries as a white-colored tablet to distinguish it from the salmon-colored version currently available in the U.S. Gilead and Merck plan to pursue registration of the product with individual country health authorities. The component therapies are already registered or in the process of being registered in many of these countries. Gilead will manufacture Atripla using efavirenz supplied by Merck. Merck in turn will handle distribution of the product in the countries covered by the agreement.
