Gilead Sciences is facing a growing number of claims alleging serious Complera side effects.

Complera is reportedly one of the leading HIV treatment drugs on the market. Patients now claim that Gilead Sciences allegedly withheld safer HIV drugs from the market, even as the medical community and patient population continues to express growing concern over alleged Complera side effects. The injury reports consist of incidents of kidney problems and bone injuries that may be linked to adverse Complera side effects.

Gilead Sciences is one of the leading pharmaceutical manufacturers in HIV treatment medications, including tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) antiretroviral drugs like Complera and Viread.

Complera and other TDF medications have been allegedly causing patients to develop bone density problems and kidney damage. These side effects can compound the already complicated health situation of the HIV patient.

TDF medications work by preventing the HIV virus cells from reproducing, in turn preventing the disease from overtaking the patient’s immune system and stops it from transmitting to other patients.

HIV patients rely on Complera and other TDF medications to help them live more normal lives. This reliance makes the drugs’ alleged correlation with bone density and kidney problems very troubling. The Complera side effects patients have reported include:

• Loss of Bone Mineral Density
• Bone Death (Necrosis)
• Bone Fracture
• Osteopenia
• Osteoporosis
• Kidney Toxicity
• Chronic kidney disease
• Kidney damage
• Kidney failure

It has been noted that TDF medications like Complera have a low bioavailability in patients. Low bioavailability means a lot of medication must be consumed in order for it to be effective.

In fact, Complera side effects spurred a class action investigation after it was discovered that Gilead Sciences may have had safer HIV treatment medications for years but had withheld them from the market.

Overview of HIV TDF Medication Concern

Gilead Sciences reportedly had a safer medication group, the tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF) drug family for years but did not release them until 2015. Clinical trials were conducted on TAF medications since 2001, but Gilead had reportedly slowed the development of the new drugs down in 2004.

This move was devastating to HIV patients, because TAF medications were shown to be less toxic than TDF drugs. This is because TAF drugs could be prescribed at a lower dose potentially reducing the severity of the side effects.

The FDA approved TAF drugs in 2015, with the patent on TDF medications expiring in 2018. According to STAT, a medical news service publication, soon after TAF drugs Odefsey and Genvoya entered the market, Gilead had increased the prices of TDF medications Complera and Stribild.

This was alarming because the price hike occurred at a time when Gilead lost control of the HIV treatment market, with experts stating that the company was trying to push the less toxic TAF drugs.

Some say that Gilead Sciences should have made the TAF medications available for patients earlier, especially when early clinical trials showed that they posed fewer health risks to patients.

In fact, in July of 2018, a patient filed a personal injury lawsuit against Gilead over the TDF medication Truvada. The lawsuit alleges that Gilead knew that Truvada and other TDF medications posed serious health risks to patients, but only suggested that doctors “consider monitoring” bone mineral density in patients that have a “history of pathological fracture or who are at risk for osteopenia.”