13 May 2019 - A donation of HIV prevention drugs from the pharmaceutical giant Gilead could benefit shareholders more than patients.

At first blush, the news that Gilead — the company that makes Truvada, the medication that prevents HIV infection — will donate enough of the drug to treat 200,000 patients a year through 2030 seems like unequivocally good news. Some 40,000 Americans are newly infected with HIV every year. Reducing that transmission rate is the key to eradicating the virus in the United States, as President Trump has vowed to do by 2030. And increasing access to Truvada is widely seen as the best way to do that.

But, as drug policy experts regularly note, such donations have a long history of doing more for drug makers than for patients.

Read New York Times opinion