4. Gilead Sciences $18.4B ▲140.9%
Global revenue: $23.7B (10th), up 115%
Top brands: Sovaldi ($7.9B); Atripla ($3.0B); Truvada ($2.5B); Harvoni ($1.5B); Stribild ($1.3B)
Promotional spend: $224.4M (25th); 1.2% of rev.
R&D spend: $2.8B (13th); up 25.7%; 11.8% of rev.
Planned launches: darunavir/cobicistat/emtricitabine/GS-7340 (HIV); idelalisib (hem/onc.); ranolazine (CV)
Patent expirations: Viread (2017); Atripla (2021); Truvada (2021)
Gilead almost had too good a year in 2014: The company reaped such huge sales that it drew sticker-shock backlash from payers and senators——even the Philadelphia Transportation Authority. This was largely due to the pricing of its hep.-C cures—Sovaldi and Harvoni, which collectively raked in more than $10 billion in 2014. Their success even scuttled the competition, with the FDA rescinding Merck’s Breakthrough Therapy designation for another HCV contender. In 2015 and beyond, Gilead will use its bolstered coffers to fund a new focus in oncology. The company saw its first cancer drug, Zydelig, approved in the EU and US in 2014 for blood cancers; it also plans to evaluate Zydelig in other stages of lymphoma. Gilead also licensed a BTK inhibitor, GS-4059, from Ono Pharmaceuticals, which will be jointly developed for use in malignant B-cells. To help lead the oncology charge, the drugmaker snared well-respected industry veteran Phillippe Bishop to serve as SVP.
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From the May 01, 2015 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
