Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

GILD’s TAF scam:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gilead-20160529-snap-story.html

In an animal study published in 2001, the company’s scientists found that TAF had 1,000-fold greater activity against HIV than [Viread]. That raised the possibility of less toxicity.

Gilead paid doctors to recruit 30 HIV patients in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Palo Alto for preliminary studies to see how it worked in humans. The trial found that TAF, the modified formulation, “had greater antiviral potency” at a fraction of the dose.

Despite those promising results, in October 2004, then-Chief Executive John Martin announced that Gilead had stopped the project.

Based on an “internal business review,” he said, executives had concluded the experimental drug was unlikely to be “highly differentiated” from its successful predecessor [i.e. from Viread].

The company’s view changed six years later. Talking with investors in December 2010, Kevin Young, executive vice president of commercial operations, described “an interesting new molecule.”

But it wasn’t new. It was TAF.

…Today, Gilead’s sales material reminds doctors of the original drug’s toxicity, and reps urge them to prescribe Genvoya and two other TAF-based combination pills approved in the last two months.

GILD's long delay in bringing TAF to market was, of course, motivated by the business exigency of launching TAF-based regimens close to the time when the patent on Viread was due to expire.