Gilead & World Domination

[Guest guest]

You're right in that Gilead has been an industry leader in coming up with new meds, having a robust pipeline, and partnering with other companies to market easy-to-take combos like Atripla. Being a pharmaceutical company, they're not just doing it out of the goodness of their hearts--they're in it to gain market share and make money. That said, I've worked with the company over the years and the researchers that develop the new HIV treatments are a dedicated bunch. Their new booster could finally free us from Norvir--which would indeed be revolutionary. The possible fly in the ointment is that they're still relying heavily on Viread/Truvada as the backbone for new combos, and this drug is not without its problems over the long term (potential kidney toxicity being at the top of the list) So from a patient perspective, I wish they'd find something better to bet the farm on, as so many people are on Truvada, and many will eventually develop resistance and/or toxicities

But I must say that any plans of world domination are overblown. They cannot ask DHHS to make any of their drugs a preferred regimen. All they can do is spend a lot of money on studies to prove whether their drugs are as good or better than what's currently in use. Then a panel of unpaid doctors & community like us ( and I are now both on this panel) review the available data and vote on whether it should become a preferred regimen or not. Anyone who's ever gotten money from Gilead has to recuse themselves from voting on any Gilead drugs to avoid conflict of interest. So it's a very honest & transparent process.

Some of the world domination conspiracies may have arisen from the fact that Rumsfeld was once on their board, and Tamiflu was one of the recommended drugs for the H1N1 virus. But in the HIV arena there aren't any monkeyshines that I'm aware of.

Kudos to you for volunteering to be in the new booster studies--it's people like you who make research possible to bring new & better drugs to market. Just as an aside--for those who have to be on a boosted protease and just can't tolerate Norvir, the old non-nuke Recriptor (aka delavardine) works similarly to boost protease levels. The downside is that it's 2 pills 3 times a day, but for someone on a salvage regimen suffering from Norvir diarrhea, lipid elevations,etc, it could be a workable option.

Hope this helps,

Jeff in Palm Springs

6. Looking for the elusive boost: GS-9350 and Gilead Sciences

Posted by: "" babylonorbust@... babylon.orbust

Date: Mon Feb 1, 2010 3:30 pm ((PST))

Hello all. I am currently using Kaletra as part of my cocktail but have moral

problems with Abbott because of price and access issues. I know I am not alone

in this and I had been anxiously awaiting for Gilead Sciences new boosting drug

GS-9350 that promises to offer Abbot some competition in this area. I had

spoken with someone I trusted at a Clinical Trial site about taking part in the

trail for the new Quad pill because I had great respect for Gilead because it is

a biotech company with really impressive scientists and a good balance sheet and

a pipeline and lots of other good reasons. I have owned stock in the past and

liked the idea of making money off a drug company instead of them just making

money off of me. He had suggested that Gilead had plans to take over the whole

HIV drug industry and worried about a plan to ask the Heath and Human Services

to recommend their drugs as the first line drugs of choice. Has anyone else

heard anything about Gilead and its plan for world domination? This is someone I

really respect but I don't usually believe conspiracy theories. Thanks!

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