AIDS activists sue HHS to get Gilead settlement over PrEP patents

A patient advocacy group is suing the Trump administration for failing to disclose details of a recent settlement with Gilead Sciences over the patent rights to a pair of HIV prevention pills.

The deal, which was reached last January, capped several years of litigation that began when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention argued that it had funded crucial academic research into HIV prevention that later formed the basis for the highly effective pills, and that Gilead subsequently infringed its patent rights.

The case was closely watched because it raised questions about the extent to which government-funded research should lead to affordably priced medicines, since patient advocates complained Gilead charged high prices for the pills — Truvada and a newer version called Descovy. The lawsuit raised an issue that, at times, figured in the larger debate in the U.S. over the rising cost of prescription drugs.