Gilead Seeks Review of Government’s HIV Drug Patent Claims (2)

Patents for an HIV prevention drug granted to the Department of Health and Human Services aren’t valid, Gilead Sciences, the drug’s maker, said Aug. 21 as it asked a federal patent office to review the health agency’s claims.

The requests that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s administrative Patent Trial and Appeal Board review the claims in two patents comes as HIV prevention advocates have urged the government to use its patents to lower the cost of the drug Truvada, which can cost $21,000 without any assistance.

Truvada, a form of pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, is the only HIV prevention ...