AHF Advocates to Ramp Up Gilead Protests Wednesday

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a weeklong, twice-daily series of protests targeting drug maker of Gilead Sciences over the Bay Area company’s drug pricing and policies. The protesters, who have repurposed Gilead’s logo as “Greediad,” will start protesting each day at 8:30 a.m. and resume again at 12:00 noon PT in front of the headquarters of Gilead Sciences (333 Lakeside Dr., Foster City, CA 94404). A larger theatrical protest with costumes—a $1 million dollar bill, pigs’ heads and snouts, advocates dressed as burglars with money bags slung over their shoulders—will take place on Wednesday, October 26 at 12:00 noon PT.

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Advocates protest Gilead’s drug pricing and policies, with theatrical demonstrations including costumes mimicking the company’s price gouging and billion dollar profit margins. (Photo: Business Wire)

According to a 340B Report article from March, Gilead became the 15th drug manufacturer to place unlawful restrictions on 340B contract pharmacy programs. Lawyers for the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) in both the Biden and Trump administrations have said these restrictions are clearly illegal, yet drug companies like Gilead forge ahead with the lawbreaking in search of even greater profits.

Moreover, according to the 340B Report, Gilead is now refusing to offer the 340B discount price for HIV drugs to providers who use contract pharmacies. Earlier this year, Gilead suddenly, dramatically increased the price that safety net providers pay for Descovy – a drug needed for both HIV treatment and HIV prevention.

The 340B drug pricing program is administered by the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). It has helped provide low-cost medications and better health outcomes for millions of Americans and the nonprofit clinics and hospitals that serve them. Safety net providers like Ryan White providers who serve patients living with HIV have the right under the 340B statute to purchase drugs for their patients at a discounted price. In March, Gilead put profits before patients by unilaterally imposing unlawful conditions on when and how it will give discounts for certain Hepatitis C drugs.

“We are fighting against Gilead’s greed to fatten their corporate pockets. Their money-making schemes not only impact community partners and providers but also patients, like myself. I am one of many voices of community advocates who stand against pharma greed. Gilead cares more about money than lives,” said Jesse Brooks, AIDS advocate and AHF mobilizer.

In response to Gilead’s (and others’) illegal restrictions on 340B access for higher profits, AHF also earlier this year asked Congress and the FDA to conduct a formal investigation of Gilead as well as increase scrutiny of the actions of pharmaceutical companies.

In conjunction with the week of Gilead protests October 24 through October 28, AHF will also run a series of Gilead/Greediad ads in several Bay Area print and online publications. The Greediad advertisements will note that:

• Gilead Sciences has made tens of billions of dollars from drug price gouging.
• Gilead is infamous for charging $1000 for a single pill of the Hep C drug Sovaldi.
• Gilead is being sued by thousands of HIV patients for knowingly selling an inferior drug until its patent ran out.
• Gilead replaced the inferior drug with Biktarvy and has now slashed its patient assistance program.
• Gilead has doubled the price they charge to safety net providers of their HIV prevention drug Descovy.
• Gilead’s greed has no limit making them the poster child for drug company profiteering.

AHF mobilizers will be also deploying social media in real-time at many of these Gilead protests and will be using hashtags: #BadGilead – #PeopleBeforeProfit – #GreedyGilead

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.7 million individuals in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

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