HIV Medication Found to Cause Bone and Kidney Disease

The New York Times just reported that a pharmaceutical company called Gilead delayed a new version of an H.I.V. Medication, called Truvada, allowing it to extend the patent life of a blockbuster line of medications. The newer medication that was delayed in reaching the market was Descovy.

Truvada’s side effects increase osteoporosis and kidney disease because. It is more toxic than the “new” Descovy.

So if you have taken Truvada, and perhaps Descovy now, and have kidney or bone disease, you should seek counsel.

Discovered internal Gilead documents confirm that the company had an “Extension strategy”. This was to keep on the market the first drug, to gain from the longest life of the patent protection, and only then introducing the newer safer medication. Once they introduced the newer drug, then that patent life starts to run, which is why this becomes an “Extension strategy”.

The New York Times report raises the question, as to how many other companies similarly ride out their patent-life monopoly on a drug, before switching patients over to a more recently patented version of the drug, say cancer medications for example, to prolong their patent monopoly. This is called “product hopping.”

If you have been hurt by the delay of waiting for a new medication to hit the market, you should ask why it did not hit the market earlier. Seek counsel.

‍