Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

The Seeking Alpha author plainly doesn’t understand GILD’s HIV franchise:

…none of the company's major patents are expiring over the next few years. The only patents on course for expiry are Tamiflu and Viread that expire in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Considering that neither of these drugs account for a significant chunk of revenue, their expiry would hardly have an impact on the margins of the company.

Viread is rarely used as a standalone product, but it’s the foundation—along with Emtriva—of all of GILD’s big-selling HIV cocktails. Inasmuch as GILD’s Emtriva patents running beyond 2017 are suspect and have already been challenged, the loss of patent protection on Viread in 2017 could open the door for generic versions of Truvada and hence is a much more serious matter for GILD than the Seeking Alpha author realizes.