Gilead slips after sales miss
Sales for Biktarvy, Gilead’s blockbuster HIV drug, increased 7% year over year but missed analyst expectations.
Gilead Sciences slipped 3% in after-hours trading after it reported sales that missed Wall Street estimates, though earnings came in better than expected.
The company reported $6.7 billion in sales, compared to the $6.8 billion analysts were penciling in. But it also posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.81, more than the $1.78 analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.
The company, which specializes in HIV treatments and manufactures some of its bestselling drugs in Ireland, faces headwinds along with the rest of the industry as the Trump administration has cut research spending and threatened to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
Gilead sold $3.1 billion in Biktarvy, its blockbuster HIV drug, which is a 7% increase year over year but less than the $3.2 billion analysts expected. Its second-highest-selling drug — Descovy, an HIV prevention treatment — brought in $586 million in sales, more than the $515 million analysts anticipated.
Gilead’s brands for PrEP — or pre-exposure prophylaxis, a type of drug that prevents HIV in high-risk patients — have grown less lucrative since its first-generation drug, Truvada, had its patent expire in 2020. Descovy, a newer and safer version of the same treatment, has become more popular but is sold at a lower price because of competition with Truvada’s generic alternative.
Gilead is expecting some growth in the second half of 2025, as one of its HIV treatments is expected to get Food and Drug Administration approval to be used as PrEP. Sunleca, the brand name for lenacapavir, was initially approved to treat HIV in patients who are already positive, but studies have shown that it can also serve as PrEP administered through biannual jabs. The only other injectable — Apretude, sold by ViiV Healthcare — is administered every two months.
