HIV Price-Fixing Suit Starts In California Federal Court

On Tuesday, jurors listened to opening statements in a class-action lawsuit focused on an alleged conspiracy to increase prices and limit competition for medications utilized in the treatment of HIV.

The drug company case was the focus of Tuesday’s court proceedings, with arguments from all parties involved. The trial will continue until the end of June, with US District Judge Edward Chen presiding over the case.

A group of customers, including health funds and workers’ unions, filed a lawsuit in 2019 against Gilead Sciences in a federal court in California. The lawsuit alleged that the pharmaceutical company engaged in a “long-running scheme” to limit competition for antiretroviral therapy medications used to treat HIV.

Related: US: Gilead hit with antitrust suit over price-fixing HIV drugs

The lawsuit against Gilead alleges anticompetitive and anti-consumer behavior, such as highly-priced HIV drugs and hindering the entrance of generic drugs into the market. As a result, the lawsuit claims that Gilead has maintained a monopoly in the market for modern HIV treatment drugs.

The lawsuit centers around whether Gilead Sciences made an agreement with Teva, an Israeli generic pharmaceuticals company, to delay the introduction of generic drugs to the market. Gilead, headquartered in Foster City, California, had revenue of over $28 billion in 2022, while Teva’s revenue in 2021 was over $16 billion.