Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that researches, develops, and commercializes medicines. Gilead’s Veklury (remdesivir) was one of the first antiviral treatments authorized for COVID-19. Gilead also pioneered groundbreaking treatments for HIV that helped transform the fatal virus into a manageable chronic condition. The company continues to expand into oncology and other chronic conditions through acquisitions, such as CymaBay, which developed a treatment for a rare liver disease.
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Gilead is a longtime leader in HIV therapeutics and prevention, including antiretroviral treatment and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicines, which are drugs taken to lower the risk of contracting HIV. Gilead has worked with the government of South Africa and the Global Fund to accelerate access to lenacapavir, a long-acting prevention medication that the FDA approved in 2022 to treat drug-resistant HIV. Approximately 7.8 million people in South Africa live with HIV, with an estimated 170,000 new infections each year.
