Why Gilead Sciences Stock Thrashed the Market Today

There was some good news in the clinical sphere for Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) on Thursday, and this drove its stock price up by almost 3% that trading session. A late-stage clinical trial of an investigational drug yielded encouraging initial results, hence the rise. In comparison, the S&P 500 index inched up by 0.8% on the day.Gilead's news was that its second phase 3 trial of HIV drug lenacapavir met its key efficacy endpoints for preventing the disease. An interim analysis of the study found that the drug reduced new infections with the disease by 96% when compared to background HIV incidence. Lenacapavir, which is only administered twice annually, was more efficacious than the healthcare company's classic once-per-day HIV medication Truvada. HIV, which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), was a major health scourge when it exploded in the 1980s. Since then, increasingly more sophisticated and efficacious drugs -- notably Truvada -- have been developed to treat it.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool