Gilead subpoenaed over HIV drugs

California, USA-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences has received a subpoena from the US Attorney's Office in San Francisco requesting documents regarding its marketing and medical education programs for its HIV drugs Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) and Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) and Emtriva (emtricitabine).

Gilead says it intends to comply with the Attorney's subpoena and to cooperate in any related government enquiry. The firm's full-year revenues for 2005 were $2.03 billion, up 53% on the previous year and Gilead attributed this success largely to its HIV franchise.

In the first quarter of 2006, sales of those three drugs leapt 50% to $450.7 million. Earlier this year, Gilead signed a deal with US drug major Bristol-Myers Squibb for the development of a product combining the former's Sustiva (efavirenz) with Truvada as a once-daily, single-tablet regimen (Marketletter May 8).