Gilead Broadens War vs Bogus HIV Drug Ring

A federal judge in New York has frozen the assets of dozens of people and entities accused of operating a massive nationwide scheme to distribute counterfeit bottles of Gilead Sciences Inc. HIV drugs, including two alleged "kingpins," Brendan Pierson reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Gilead said it had uncovered an operation that was "staggering in scope," responsible for sales of hundreds of millions of dollars of counterfeit bottles of its top sellers Descovy, Genvoya and Biktarvy, and other medicines.

Gilead, which has been pursuing alleged counterfeiters in a civil lawsuit since last year, said in a court filing unsealed on Wednesday it had uncovered an operation that was "staggering in scope," responsible for sales of hundreds of millions of dollars of counterfeit bottles of its top sellers Descovy, Genvoya and Biktarvy, and other medicines.

US District Judge Ann Donnelly's latest asset freeze order, also unsealed on Wednesday, targets more than 50 defendants newly added to Gilead's lawsuit.

Many counterfeit bottles contain antiviral pills manufactured by Gilead but illegally bought off the street and repackaged, while some have been found to contain other, potentially dangerous drugs, including the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel, Gilead has said.

HIV drugs accounted for $7.6 billion of Gilead's $12.6 billion revenue in the first half of the year.

The company in January warned that more than $250 million of counterfeit drugs had been sold over the last two years, and said it had identified more than 85,000 bottles that were fake or tampered with.

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