Stribild medication is part of a class of HIV treatment medications that has been linked to bone density and kidney problems. Part of the group of medications with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) as their core ingredients, Stribild medication has allegedly been the cause of serious injuries in numerous patients.

Stribild medication is manufactured by Gilead Sciences, also the maker of other TDF medications, which has been accused of deliberately hiding safer HIV treatment drugs from the public.

Gilead is accused of doing this for favorable profit margins, only releasing the safer HIV medications after having maximized their revenues from TDF medications.

Overview of Stribild Medication Complications

Stribild and other TDF medications are antiretroviral in nature, with the drugs working by preventing the HIV virus from replicating in patients. By doing this, these HIV medications also prevent the virus from being transmitted and helps strengthen the patient’s immune system.

While these drugs have helped numerous patients, TDF drugs have been tied to extreme side effects, allegedly causing bone demineralization and serious kidney problems.

Due to these adverse effects, patients have been allegedly developing chronic kidney damage or failure. Some TDF drug patients are also reporting bone fractures. The problems with these drugs were reported on in July 2018, when a lawsuit surrounding TDF medication Truvada had alleged the drug was unnecessarily dangerous to patients.

According to the claim, these TDF medications have low bioavailability and are not absorbed well into the body. This means the patient must ingest large amounts of Stribild medication or other TDF drugs for them to take effect.

At issue is the core ingredients becoming embedded into the kidneys and bones. This allegedly contributes to the increased risk of kidney damage and bone fractures, but the Stribild medication label reportedly makes no mention of this.

Complaints Facing Gilead Sciences

Several personal injury claims and class action lawsuits have already been filed against Gilead Sciences for allegedly failing to disclose vital drug safety information to the public. It has also been alleged that Gilead was aware of the problems related to low bioavailability for quite some time, and even had safer versions of the medication (TAF drugs) long before they were recently released into the market.

These other HIV drugs, the TAF medications, were allegedly designed to be safer for patients and do not have the same low bioavailability issue as TDF drugs.

It has been noted in TDF lawsuits that Gilead Sciences had reportedly spent 20 years developing TAF medications but the medications were not released until 2015. Gilead allegedly did this so it could patent TAF medications before the patent for TDF drugs expired, so they could retain control in the market and their profit margin.

Gilead Sciences allegedly downplayed the potential drug complications and had only suggested that “doctors ‘consider monitoring’ bone mineral density ‘in patients with a history of pathological fracture or who are at risk for osteopenia.’”

Many patients have alleged that they were not aware of any of this before using the TDF medications, and were therefore unable to make an informed medical decision regarding their health.