The problem is they cannot afford to wait because someone else will beat them to the market. Once we have several DAA classes approved the IFN-free "party" may even start off-label (I personally don't think it will, but this just underscores the sense of urgency). And now with ABT results we know you don't really need a nuke, at least in naives, so GS-7977 is not going to become what Viread is in HIV. And without that type of monopoly power, GILD should be willing to split profits vs. risk missing them alltogether
Just to clarify this is a hypothetical discussion on being first into a "warehoused" marketplace. GILD has the lead and more than likely will mop-up the majority of these warehoused patients with GS-7977/Riba.
I pointed out the need to re-calculate timelines if they need to go with plan B. Another issue is their confidence in their in-house compound. It will be fun to see how this plays out.