Gilead Urged To Scale-Up of Low-Cost PrEP
TAG Welcomes HHS Lawsuit Against Gilead; Urges Dramatic Scale-Up of Low-Cost PrEP November 11, 2019 – Treatment Action Group (TAG) welcomes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pursuit of a lawsuit against Gilead Sciences, Inc., the manufacturer of Truvada and Descovy, the only two FDA-approved pills for pre-exposure prophlyaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV. The suit is the result of months of pressure by activists who have rightly asserted that tenofovir-based PrEP research was underwritten by U.S. taxpayers, many of whom remain shut-out from accessing PrEP due to financial barriers arising directly from the corporate price gouging. For years, the drugmaker Gilead has profited off of taxpayer funded research by charging excessive prices for PrEP. Gilead’s high pricing has limited the scope of initiatives to end the HIV epidemic—particularly among low-income communities and communities of color. While TAG and allies call for...