Gilead, Aelix ally to trial HIV-suppressing combination

Gilead has teamed up with Aelix Therapeutics to trial a combination designed to free people with HIV from the need to take antiretroviral drugs. The planned clinical trial will test Gilead’s TLR7 agonist in combination with Aelix’s T-cell vaccine. Gilead began testing the TLR7 agonist, vesatolimod, in HIV patients in 2016. In animal models, the combination of the drug and a broadly neutralizing antibody suppressed HIV for six months without additional treatment. The early-stage finding dialed up hopes that vesatolimod can boost immune responses and thereby contribute to the elimination of virus-infected cells.