U.S. Government Wants $1 Billion from Gilead for HIV PrEP Drug Patent

The U.S. government filed an appeal of a jury's recent decision in the CDC patent infringement case involving Gilead's HIV-prevention regimen, seeking $1 billion in compensation against Gilead’s $10 billion in revenue from the drugs.

The case began in 2019 when HHS sued Gilead, claiming that three of the patents covering Gilead's PrEP regimen — Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) and Descovy (emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide) for lowering the risk of transmitting HIV — belong to the CDC. 

In May, a federal jury in Delaware found that the patents held by CDC were not only invalid, but were not infringed on by Gilead. 

If the court does not grant the appeal, the government says it wants a new trial because the court allowed Gilead to testify about breach of contract issues relating to the CDC patents. 

Gilead "proceeded to permeate the record with irrelevant, misleading, and confusing allegations about breach of contract" that had nothing to do with patent infringement, the appeal states.

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