Cipla Flips Gilead’s ‘End Run’ Claim in Descovy Patent Fight

Cipla Ltd. accused Gilead Sciences Inc. of using a patent suit over Cipla’s proposed copy of the blockbuster HIV drug Descovy relying on Gilead’s clinical data in seeking FDA approval to sidestep the companies’ confidential 2022 settlement.

Cipla denied Gilead’s allegations that its new drug application infringes seven patents covering specific forms of tenofovir alafenamide, or TAF—one of Descovy’s two active ingredients—and methods for making the compound, in its answer and affirmative defenses filed May 15 in the US District Court for the District of Delaware.

Gilead has pursued “a decades long product hopping strategy” to secure more than 30 ...