Gilead Sciences, a company that holds a patent on Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF), is being sued for allegedly ‘intentionally withholding’ a safer HIV drug.

TDF is an HIV drug sold by Gilead Sciences as part of medications routinely taken by people with HIV to help regulate their viral load. Last week, Morgan & Morgan, Ben Crump Law and Hilliard Martinez Gonzales filed a lawsuit in the US federal court as they claim that the company is withholding a safer version of the drug that has fewer side effects, in order to exploit patent laws.

They are accusing the Gilead Sciences, which recently launched a €9.5 million unit at a Cork plant, of planning to roll out Tenofovir Alafenamide Fumarate (TAF), the safer version of the drug when their patent on TDF expires in 2021.

The lawsuit claims that the company is “intentionally withholding [TAF] …from hundreds of thousands of patients in order to extend the profitability of the patent.”

Usually, when a patent expires, other companies can produce versions of the drug at a cheaper rate, but if Gilead plans to roll out the new safer version of the drug just as the patent for TDF, then they could continue to charge premium rates for the new HIV drug.

The lawsuit also alleges that the pharmaceutical company have “unjustly affected patients in the black, minority, and LGBT communities,” and that they left people at risk of “life-threatening side effects such as bone demineralization and kidney toxicity.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said, “Gilead’s chosen path of inaction is causing tremendous harm to persons with HIV, particularly black and LGBT minorities, by keeping drugs that would reduce deadly symptoms off the market and unavailable to those who need them the most.”

“This lawsuit is a major step in the right direction toward racial equity in communities unevenly affected by HIV and exploited by pharmaceutical goliaths like Gilead.”

He added, “This new lawsuit seeks justice for underrepresented communities, providing a voice to those who may not have ever received one otherwise.

“As long as Gilead continues to cravenly value profits over people, people living with HIV/AIDS will suffer from a lower quality of life. This must stop.”

Attorney Bob Hilliard added: “For nearly two decades, Gilead has been raking in billions of dollars each year from the sale of the TDF-containing drugs that are the subject of our lawsuit—medications used primarily for the treatment of people living with HIV.

“Gilead openly markets TAF as a safer alternative to TDF. We believe the evidence will show that Gilead withheld the equally effective but safer medication for one primary reason—billions in profits.

“If Gilead withheld TAF during its patent exclusivity with regard to TDF, Gilead could maximize its profits by monopolizing the market during the exclusivity period, releasing TAF prior to the expiration of TDF exclusivity, and encouraging prescribers to switch patients from TDF to the safer TAF medications before entry of generic TDF into the market.

“This is what Gilead did do, and people living with HIV paid the price.

“Our lawsuit seeks recovery for those hurt by Gilead’s greed, and to hold Gilead accountable for choosing profits over people.”