Several HIV patients have filed a lawsuit together against Gilead Sciences, alleging deceptive actions regarding their Viread medication.

Gilead Sciences Inc. manufactures and markets several tenofovir drugs for the treatment of HIV. The company sells these prescriptions under a variety of brands including Viread, Truvada, Atripla, Complera, and Stribild.

Tenofovir was discovered by Gilead to have HIV fighting properties in the 1980s. However, the drug was unable to be made into an oral form at the time and the intravenous form did not have great sales potential.

To capitalize on the technology, Gilead developed tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) which can be made into an oral form. When patients take TDF, the body reportedly converts the chemical into tenofovir – allowing the medication to effectively fight against HIV. The Viread medication, which was Gilead’s first TDF drug, was approved for use in 2004 and other iterations of the drug followed through 2012.

Although TDF is an effective drug, the amount of drug needed for effective HIV treatment allegedly leads to toxicity in the bones and kidneys. Patients say Gilead was aware of these risks but continued to sell their TDF drugs to HIV patients.

Plaintiffs in a recent lawsuit against Gilead claim that the pharmaceutical company knew that tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF) was a safer alternative to TDF based drugs, but chose to continue with TDF medications to maximize profits.

Unlike TDF, TAF is reportedly absorbed by the body efficiently and requires a lower dosage to be effective. Because TAF requires lower dosages, it allegedly results in less toxicity and fewer side effects.

TAF was allegedly discovered by Gilead before the company released their TDF drugs. So why didn’t Gilead focus on the allegedly safer option of TAF when they discovered the chemical? Plaintiffs claim that Gilead did not want to jeopardize the sales performance of Viread and other TDF medications, so they stopped all research on TAF and shelved the product until the TDF patent expired.

Plaintiffs argue that this was a money-making scheme by Gilead. First, they would secure the TDF patent and make billions of dollars selling their HIV drug franchise. After their exclusive rights to sell TDF expired, they would then repeat the process with TAF drugs – securing billions of dollars in sales through 2032.

“Once Gilead’s first TDF product, Viread, was on the market, Gilead did not want to hurt TDF sales by admitting that its TDF-based products are unreasonably and unnecessarily unsafe,” plaintiffs claim.

The recent lawsuit against Gilead Sciences seeks compensation for the company’s alleged deception which reportedly caused countless patients to experience bone and kidney toxicity despite a safer drug being available.

“Gilead intentionally withheld a safer alternative design of TDF Drugs it knew to be dangerously toxic to patients’ kidneys and bones, while failing to adequately warn about the risks and safer use of the defective drugs, solely to make more money,” the HIV drug lawsuit claims.

The Viread Medication Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-06972 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.