Gilead Put Lives before Profits! Says AHF INDIA

Gilead Sciences Inc.  is among the top 15 largest biopharmaceutical firms in the world, generating over $27 billion in revenue and paying its CEO over $19 million in 2021 alone. In addition to overpricing lifesaving drugs, it has refused to register some medications in lower-income countries and consistently blocks attempts to introduce cheaper, generic versions of its medicines.

AHF - AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION, continues pressuring, pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences to stop its greedy tactics and put lives before profits, Gilead is one of the worst offenders of big pharma profiteering, and at the same time, it has priced several of its HIV and Hepatitis C drugs out of reach for many people.

 AHF - AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION - is taking its grassroots campaign - globally, to raise awareness about Gilead’s shameful practices and calling on them to do the following:
1.    Stop “EVERGREENING PATENTS” - (obtaining additional patents on the original drug's modifications, such as new dosages, new forms, new releases, or new combinations, is known as secondary patenting or evergreening) on existing HIV/AIDS drugs like “TRUVADA” – this is exploitation, not innovation.

2.    Open the license for the generic production of the lifesaving drug for Hepatitis C “HARVONI” to all low- and middle-income countries.

3.    License transfer of technology to produce the drug for Cryptococcal Meningitis to generic manufacturers, across the globe.

4.    Link executive compensation to the impact on positive public health outcomes and access to medicines in developing countries.

Gilead’s tactics have hurt people living with HIV worldwide for over 20 years by securing successive patents, known as ‘evergreening,’ and generating billions of dollars by creating a monopoly on some of the most effective and well-tolerated antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV.

A highly effective Hepatitis C drug costs $1,000 per pill, and a 12-week course of treatment has a retail price of over $90,000 in the U.S.A and the generic version of the same drug costs only $4 per pill in India, Gilead has excluded 50 middle-income countries from access to the generic, discounted price. These excluded countries include Jamaica, Tunisia, the Philippines, Ukraine, and Venezuela, among others.

“AHF is known for being the voice for the voiceless and speaking up for the world’s most vulnerable people, which is what makes our Gilead advocacy so important for helping to ensure that people in low- and middle-income countries get access to affordable, lifesaving medicines – said Dr. V. Sam Prasad, Country Program Director, AHF INDIA.

“Gilead must stop its greedy profiteering, which has harmed people living with HIV and others for the last two decades through its monopolistic control of patents on proven and highly effective treatments for HIV, hepatitis C, and other conditions. Gilead must start putting people’s lives before its grossly high profits!” – added, Dr. V. Sam Prasad.

“Gilead must be held accountable for arbitrarily placing a price on who lives and who dies by keeping the most effective, modern, and lifesaving medicines out of reach of millions of people in low- and middle-income countries,” said Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, AMBASSADOR for AHF India. “Gilead is notorious for exploiting patent monopolies on blockbuster drugs to enrich itself and its shareholders. It uses R&D [research and development] costs as an excuse when those aspects are often funded by taxpayers. For their generosity, the public and lower-income countries are rewarded with astronomical drug prices. Our global advocacy campaign is meant to let everyone know about Gilead’s greedy tactics and make lifesaving medicines accessible for everyone, not just people in rich countries – Prince Manvendra Singh added.

A group of nearly 150 nongovernmental organizations, including AHF, wrote a letter recently to Gilead demanding it expand access to its patented COVID-19 treatment candidate drug Remdesivir. Gilead holds the patent on remdesivir in 70 countries worldwide, and there are no production sites for the drug outside the U.S.

Despite claims that it uses its enormous profits to develop new drugs, Gilead all too often buys up publicly funded research on new medicines, brings them to market at inflated prices, and rewards its executives with enormous pay packages while delivering above-market stock prices and dividends for its shareholders.

It’s time that Gilead stops the greed.