Gilead Sciences, Inc.'s $35 HIV Prevention Pill, Truvada Fails to Win Doctor Support

San Francisco Business Times - by Ron Leuty -- Doctors aren't prescribing Gilead Sciences Inc.'s two-in-one, once-a-day HIV-fighting pill Truvada for preventive use, according to Bloomberg — and that may be just fine with the Foster City-based company (NASDAQ: GILD).

Truvada was central to a study led by the J. David Gladstone Institutes of San Francisco that showed late last year that men who took the $12,000-a-year pill lowered their risk of being infected by the AIDS virus from sex with other men.

The study's strong results led some to believe that Truvada would see a bump up in prescriptions. The Bloomberg story, however, said 6,805 to 8,107 new prescriptions of Truvada were written each week between Dec. 1 and Feb. 19, compared to 5,819 to 7,698 prescriptions during the same period a year earlier.

But Gilead hasn't even applied to the Food and Drug Administration to expand Truvada's label to include prevention of the virus in male-to-male sex. That filing could happen in March or April.

Plus, as wonderful as the study's data may have been, Gilead has downplayed any potential sales bonanza. Gilead chief scientific officer Norbert Bischofberger told me last month, for example, that Truvada's use as a preventive measure wouldn't be heavily marketed.

"The easiest way (to prevent HIV) is safe sex," Bischofberger told me, "and you don't want to run the risk of detracting from that message."