The Shame of Gilead

by Terry Michael

Gilead Sciences, headquartered in Foster City, CA, is the world's number one purveyor of the chemotherapies known as "anti-retrovirals" (ARVs.) In 2011, the company (named for the Biblical "balm of Gilead") reported ARV sales of about $6.91 billion dollars. The trade names for their ARVs are: Truvada, Atripla, Viread, Complera and Emtriva--all of which they acknowledge have serious adverse "side" effects (as noted in the Gilead prescribing information for Truvada.) Gilead was way ahead of nearest competitor Bristol-Myers-Squibb, which sold about $3.05 billion of the chemo in 2011, according to year-end corporate reports I have reviewed.

Four-in-one Aids drug gets green light

By SAPA

Paris - An experimental once-daily pill that combines four drugs to fight HIV is as safe and effective as commonly-prescribed treatments against the Aids virus, researchers reported in The Lancet on Friday.

Doctors tested the new drug, called Quad, for the third and final phase in which new pharmaceutical products are vetted for safety and effectiveness.

Publication in the British journal follows a recommendation in May by a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel to approve Quad for previously untreated adults infected with HIV-1. A final decision is expected by August.

The first trial entailed testing Quad against a three-in-one pill, Atripla, which since 2006 has been a standard treatment for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Gilead Sciences 4Q profit rises on HIV drug sales

www.cbsnews.com
(AP)  FOSTER CITY, Calif. — Gilead Sciences Inc.'s profit grew 6 percent in the fourth quarter on greater sales of its HIV drugs including Atripla.

Gilead said Thursday that its profit rose to $665.1 million, or 87 cents per share, from $629.4 million, or 76 cents per share, one year ago. Excluding acquisition, restructuring, and stock-based compensation expenses, Gilead said it earned 97 cents per share, far short of analyst estimates for $1.05.

History of Gilead Sciences makers of "treatments of HIV"

Some interesting reading, (well with Wikipedia sometimes you do have to read with between the lines). Still, who's been on the Broad and when...good to know who's mixing up all the HIV meds formulas uh?

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercializes therapeutics. For many years since the company was founded, the company concentrated primarily on antiviral drugs to treat patients infected withHIV, hepatitis B or influenza. In 2006, Gilead acquired two companies that were developing drugs to treat patients with pulmonarydiseases. The company has fourteen commercially available products. Headquartered and founded in Foster City, California, Gilead has operations in North America, Europe and Australia. As of the end of 2009, the company had approximately 4,000 full-time employees.The company's name and logo refer to the Balm of Gilead. Gilead (a place mentioned in the Bible) was famed for its small trees that produced a resin used in medicine.

Gilead is a member of the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index and the S&P 500.

History

Gilead Sciences was originally formed at Menlo Ventures under the name of "Oligogen, Inc." in August 1987 by H. DuBose Montgomery, co-founder of Menlo Ventures and Michael L. Riordan, a medical doctor who was 29 years old at the time. Riordan graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, spent a year as a consultant and then joined as an associate at Menlo Ventures in 1986. The company traces its roots to a runny nose because Montgomery got a particularly bad cold—a virus—and in his misery he wondered why so few antivirals existed when so many antibiotics were in use. The name of the company was changed to "Gilead Sciences" in 1988 and Montgomery served as the first Chairman of the Board from 1987 to 1993. Riordan looked to Donald Rumsfeld as a mentor in the business world and to navigate the political waters. Under the technical leadership of scientist Mark Matteucci, the company focussed on discovery research, making small strands of DNA (oligomers) to assess the potential of genetic code blockers (gene therapy). Its development of small molecule antiviral therapeutics was ushered in by John Martin in 1992 with the licensing of nucleotide compounds discovered in two European academic labs.

HIV is essentially a chronic, treatable disease.

HIV Experts Recommend Shifting HIV Care To Primary Care Doctors

By Kieryn Graham 
Published: May 4, 2011 10:17 am

In a recent editorial, Dr. Mitchell Katz, a physician with extensive experience in treating patients with HIV and AIDS, argues that HIV/AIDS care should shift from HIV specialists to primary care physicians now that, in his opinion, HIV is essentially a chronic, treatable disease.  The editorial comes several weeks after an Institute of Medicine report warned of serious and growing shortages in the HIV healthcare system and also recommended shifting more HIV care to primary care doctors.

“If specialty care is less needed than it used to be for HIV-infected patients, it turns out that primary care is more needed. Owing to the advances in HIV treatment, our patients are no longer dying: they are aging!” wrote Dr. Katz, director of the Los Angeles Department of Health Services.

Dr. Katz argued in the editorial that HIV is now largely a chronic disease with relatively routine care that could be provided by primary care physicians, as is the case with diabetes.

Most people with HIV now begin treatment with Atripla (efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir), a once-daily pill containing three antiretrovirals that has simplified HIV treatment. In addition, viral load testing – which measures the amount of HIV in the blood and allows physicians to measure how effective HV treatment is – has become fairly routine.

Gilead could change the game for HIV patients

FOLLOW THE $$ 

San Francisco Business Times - by Ron Leuty

Date: Friday, December 31, 2010, 3:00am PST

Biotech: Pill to watch-Gilead Sciences' Quad pill

Read more: Biotech: Pill to watch-Gilead Sciences' Quad pill | San Francisco Business Times

 Foster City-based Gilead could change the game for HIV patients and its bottom line, adding a new drug and booster to its once-a-day pill.

The so-called Quad pill and its elements are undergoing three Phase III studies. A fourth 700-patient trial is enrolling.

About half of the HIV patients who start therapy in the United States already use Gilead’s three-in-one Atripla, which uses Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Sustiva. The Quad pill drops the Bristol-Myers Squibb drug and uses Viread, Emtriva and a new Gilead drug called elvitegravir plus an elvitegravir booster.

Wall Street analysts have pegged the pill as a $4 billion-a-year ...

Read more: Biotech: Pill to watch-Gilead Sciences' Quad pill | San Francisco Business Times