The new head of the pioneering HIV joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer predicts his company can operate for at least five years without fresh funding from its shareholders.

Dominique Limet, chief executive of ViiV Healthcare, which was formally launched on Tuesday, says it will generate £1.6bn a year in sales to finance its own research and would begin paying a dividend to its two owners in 2011 as it sells new products.