You’d think Gilead Sciences Inc. would be celebrating. Enthusiastic scientists are hopeful its drugs now used to treat people with the AIDS virus might actually protect healthy people from catching it. In recent days, researchers heartened by a study in monkeys said they would expand tests of the pill Truvada as a possible preventive for use in healthy people who may be at high-risk for HIV. But instead of touting its drug, Gilead is trying to turn down the excitement. The attitude is partly based on fears that Truvada will be seen as a “biomedical condom” that might promote unsafe sex and lead to a backlash against a company that has become a Wall Street darling.
