Last week, I saw a news story about AIDS activists who were upset at Giliad, the maker of Truvada, over the development timeline of a new drug which has fewer negative side effects.  I thought I had saved the URL, but alas, couldn’t dfind it. But Google brought me to the new story below, which is a related story.  The good side of drugs like Truvada, is that they provide tools to fight HIV. Truvada is becoming synonymous with both prevention (PrEP) as well as HIV treatment. The downside is that we are placing a lot of power in the hands of a single drug company, and I think we can be sure that decisions being made serve their financial bottom line far more than they serve the common good.

The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation intends to ask lawmakers and the FDA to investigate Gilead for potential patent manipulation and antitrust violations, it said Tuesday, citing “bald-faced greed” and “disregard for patient safety” by the California company.The foundation has a problem with the timeline of TAF’s development, considering that Gilead’s investigators had the compound on their hands–and clinical evidence that it could cut toxicity levels–more than a decade ago, The Los Angeles Times reports. But it halted research on the candidate in 2004, and in the meantime, Viread went on to live out most of its patent life, building up to $1.1 billion in 2015 sales–and some patients suffered serious damage to their kidneys and bones, the Times says.

Source: AIDS foundation asks Congress, FDA to investigate Gilead over HIV patent | FiercePharma