The US government is appealing a jury’s decision that granted Gilead a major win in a patent fight over the company’s blockbuster HIV treatments Truvada and Descovy.
Lawyers for the government last Friday filed their appeal following a defeat to Gilead in May 2023, when six jurors found that the US had not proven patients and physicians infringed certain patents by using Truvada and Descovy for PrEP and that the patents are invalid.
But in March, District Judge Maryellen Noreika partially walked back Gilead’s jury win, ruling that the CDC patents were infringed. Still, Noreika kept the original jury decision that the patents were invalid.
The Delaware decision “upheld an earlier jury verdict in favor of Gilead that the U.S. government’s patents are invalid,” Gilead told Endpoints News in an emailed statement on Monday. “The Court’s decision and jury verdict recognized Gilead’s commitment to transforming the lives of the communities we serve.”
Gilead said it will continue to work with HHS and the CDC “toward our common goal to end the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere.”
The government initially sued Gilead in 2019 in Delaware, claiming scientists at the CDC discovered that the two-drug PrEP regimen could prevent new HIV infections.
Gilead brought Truvada (and more recently Descovy) to market with FDA approval for PrEP in 2012. Descovy brought in $2 billion in sales in 2023 and $426 million in the first quarter of 2024, while Truvada brought in $114 million in 2023.
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.