Gilead Beats HIV Drug Claims, for Now, but Loses Arbitration Bid

Gilead Sciences Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. dodged part of a lawsuit over their alleged scheme to clear the HIV prevention market for the blockbuster drug Truvada, when a federal judge in San Francisco tentatively tossed antitrust allegations brought on behalf of wholesalers.

Though he denied a bid by the drugmakers to force the case into arbitration, Judge Edward M. Chen dismissed the proposed class action anyway, saying the distributors didn’t lay out any basis for targeting agreements the pharmaceutical companies reached outside the statute of limitations.

They failed to show “affirmative” acts aimed at hiding the agreements, some of ...