AHF Calls on FDA, Congress to Investigate Gilead Sciences Over HIV/AIDS Drug Patent Manipulation

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a Media Availability all day Tuesday, May 31, to announce its call on both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Congress to open investigations of Gilead Sciences Inc., a maker of HIV/AIDS medications.

AHF will call on Congress and the FDA to investigate the Bay Area drug company and its executives over allegations of drug patent manipulation and anti-trust claims regarding slightly different formulations of tenofovir, a key HIV/AIDS drug used by as many as 80 percent of American HIV/AIDS patients.

A blistering front page Los Angeles Times article published Sunday (“A question of timing: A lawsuit claims Gilead Sciences could have developed a less-harmful version of its HIV treatment sooner” Melody Peterson, LA Times, 5/29/16) exposed Gilead’s bald-faced greed and disregard for patient safety regarding two formulations of its medication, tenofovir, including an alarming narrative of how the company may have deliberately delayed developing and patenting the second formulation, tenofovir alafenamide or TAF, which is less toxic than the preceding formulation known as TDF (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), in order to maximize the patent life—and billions of dollars in profit—on TDF despite its well documented potential to cause significant bone loss and kidney damage in patients.

In January, AHF, which operates healthcare centers and pharmacies for AIDS patients, filed a federal lawsuit against Gilead and two other defendants in alleging drug patent manipulation and anti-trust claims regarding these slightly different formulations of tenofovir to keep the drug prices artificially high. [Case # 3:16-cv-00443 U.S. District Court, Northern District of California]