09:28 AM EDT, 09/12/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Gilead Sciences ( GILD ) said Thursday that a second phase 3 clinical study of lenacapavir, the company's twice-yearly injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor, lowered HIV infection rate by 96% in comparison to background HIV incidence.

There were only two incident cases out of 2,180 participants who acquired the HIV infection in the lenacapavir group, the company added.

Twice-yearly lenacapavir also showed "superiority" to once-daily Truvada, the company said.

The phase 3 trial was carried out among participants in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, and the US.

The independent Data Monitoring Committee confirmed that the trial met its endpoints and recommended the firm stop the blinded phase of the study and offer open-label lenacapavir to all patients, Gilead said.

The company said it will start a series of regulatory filings by the end of this year.

Shares of the company were up 2.1% in recent Thursday premarket activity.

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