AHF Slams Gilead Profiteering

Drugmaker’s patent manipulation and excessive price hikes fuel company’s increased Q3 earnings

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) continued its assault on Gilead Sciences in its ongoing advocacy campaign against the Bay Area drugmaker over its incessant greed, patent manipulation, and obscene price hikes. The company released its Q3 earnings today and according to Investor’s Business Daily, “Adjusted earnings came in at $2.29 per share. Earnings advanced 20.5% and walloped GILD stock analysts’ expectations for $1.79.” While today’s earnings beat many analysts’ expectations, they also prompted new criticism from AHF over Gilead’s abhorrent drug pricing and policies.

Last month, AHF started running a weekly full-page, full-color newspaper ad in the San Francisco Chronicle and New Jersey’s Daily Record (Gilead’s new East Coast hometown newspaper). AHF also sent letters to financial institutions that manage socially responsible investment funds urging them to divest their portfolios of Gilead stock holdings.

“Gilead never has cared about patients, especially low-income, uninsured Americans. Today’s earning report solidifies the fact that Gilead’s number one priority remains the almighty dollar primarily at the expense of patients’ access to its lifesaving drugs, including its latest and safest drug formulations,” says Michael Weinstein, AHF president and cofounder. “AHF continues its call on responsible investors to divest their portfolios of Gilead stock.”

Some examples of the company’s greed include Gilead keeping a more effective HIV-medicine with fewer risky side effects off the market for years to maximize profits of its older version as well as raising the price of its hepatitis C wonder drug, Sovaldi, from an already absurd $1,000 per pill to $1,200 and doubling the price it charges safety net providers for the HIV prevention drug Descovy in just two years.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization, provides cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 1.9 million individuals across 45 countries, including the U.S. and in Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, visit us online at AIDShealth.org, find us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, and subscribe to our AHFter Hours podcast.