Gilead Sciences CEO Says HIV Prevention Drug Offers Clear Value

Gilead Sciences Inc. Chief Executive Officer Daniel O’Day said the company’s new HIV prevention drug Yeztugo should be able to gain favorable insurance coverage despite questions about how the Trump administration will handle recommendations for treatments like this.

“It’s a very straightforward economic argument to prevent the disease,” O’Day said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York Friday. “No one wants HIV to continue to expand in this country.”

Each US HIV patient’s medical costs can exceed $1 million over their lifetime. That should make the powerful preventative drug, which lists for $28,218 a year, appealing ...