Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) Business Profile

What it does

Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and sells medicines to prevent and treat diseases. Founded in 1987, it is headquartered in Foster City, California. Daniel P. O’Day is chairman and chief executive officer.

Its largest therapeutic area is HIV. Biktarvy is a once-daily tablet for treating HIV-1 in certain patients. Descovy is used with other medicines to treat HIV and is also approved for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV in certain people. Yeztugo is another prevention medicine, available as a tablet and an injection. Sunlenca is used with other medicines to treat certain adults whose HIV is resistant to multiple drugs.

Gilead also sells medicines for liver diseases, including Epclusa for hepatitis C, Vemlidy for hepatitis B and Livdelzi for primary biliary cholangitis, a disease affecting the bile ducts. Its cancer portfolio includes Trodelvy for certain breast cancers and the cell therapies Yescarta and Tecartus for certain blood cancers. Cell therapy involves processing a patient’s cells for treatment.

Other products include Veklury for certain patients with COVID-19 and AmBisome for serious fungal infections. Gilead markets its medicines to healthcare providers and distributes them through wholesalers, distributors, corporate partners and its own commercial teams.

How it makes money

Gilead earns most of its revenue by selling medicines. It also receives royalties from licensing its intellectual property, proceeds from certain intellectual-property sales and payments from collaborations. For Symtuza, an HIV medicine commercialized by Janssen, Gilead receives a share of revenue for the ingredients it contributes.

Total revenue was $29.4 billion in 2025; total product sales were $8.3 billion in the third quarter of 2026.

HIV products are the largest part of the business: HIV product sales were $20.8 billion in 2025. Biktarvy and Descovy contributed to growth that year through higher demand. These products are used for ongoing treatment or prevention, with oral regimens generally taken daily. Yeztugo adds an injectable prevention option administered twice yearly.

Beyond HIV, 2025 product sales were $3.2 billion for liver disease, $1.8 billion for cell therapy and $1.4 billion for Trodelvy. Veklury sales were $911 million, declining as COVID-19-related hospitalizations fell. The company’s products have different approved patient groups, treatment schedules and routes of administration.

The amount Gilead records from a sale is reduced by rebates, chargebacks, patient co-pay assistance, distributor fees, returns and other deductions. Insurers and government health authorities reimburse for medicines in the markets where Gilead sells, while governments also limit or regulate prices in important markets. A substantial portion of sales for most products is subject to discounts from list prices.

Quarterly sales can also move with wholesaler inventories. Gilead has observed purchases rising in the second half of the year, followed by inventory draw-down in the subsequent first quarter.

Customers and how it sells

Gilead operates in more than 35 countries and has marketing subsidiaries across its international markets. Its commercial teams promote medicines directly to physicians, hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers. Patients use its products for HIV treatment and prevention, liver disease, cancer and other conditions, while insurers and government health authorities generally reimburse product and treatment costs.

In the United States, Gilead sells and distributes most products exclusively through wholesalers. Historically, approximately 90% of U.S. gross product sales have gone to three large wholesalers and their specialty distributor affiliates: Cardinal Health, Cencora and McKesson. Those wholesalers are distribution customers; the medicines are ultimately used by patients receiving care.

Outside the United States, including Europe, Gilead sells approved products through its own commercial teams, third-party distributors or corporate partners. It generally gives a distributor exclusive promotion rights in a territory for a specified period, and many agreements involve joint work to obtain and maintain regulatory approval.

Reimbursement affects the amount received in different markets. In the United States, significant discounts can include rebates to Medicare and Medicaid or discounts to eligible entities under the 340B program. Changes in the mix of customer channels and their discounts can affect pricing from quarter to quarter.

Suppliers and costs

Gilead manufactures some products and active pharmaceutical ingredients in its own facilities, but relies on contract manufacturers and testing laboratories for the majority of its ingredients and drug products. For most products, including its HIV medicines, it uses multiple contract manufacturers as primary and backup suppliers. The company says its raw materials are generally available from multiple sources in adequate quantities.

Its facilities include sites in California and Maryland for cell therapy manufacturing, as well as operations in Ireland for manufacturing, packaging and distribution to international markets. A Canadian facility conducts development and manufactures and tests ingredients; a Netherlands facility processes cell therapies. Cell therapy requires a chain of identity and custody as patient material moves through manufacturing and back to the patient.

Research and development is another cost of the business. Gilead extensively outsources clinical trials, relying on contract research organizations for work including patient enrollment, site management and monitoring. It also incurs sales and marketing costs, manufacturing and quality-control expenses, and payments under collaboration agreements.

In the third quarter of 2026, selling, general and administrative expenses were $1.5 billion. Gilead attributed the increase from the prior year primarily to HIV promotional activities, legal expenses and higher compensation accruals.

Competitive position

Gilead’s medicines compete on effectiveness, safety, tolerability, convenience, price, insurance coverage, distribution and marketing. It faces branded and generic medicines as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing competing products. Pricing pressure from insurers and government payers can reduce net prices as products mature.

Gilead says Biktarvy reached a 53% share of the U.S. HIV treatment market in the third quarter of 2026. Yeztugo and Descovy for PrEP together held 50% of the prevention market at that time. Cell therapy sales fell in 2025 as demand declined amid competitive pressure.

Lupin, Cipla and Laurus Labs have sought to market generic Biktarvy in the United States. Gilead’s settlements with those manufacturers provide that no generic entry is expected before April 1, 2036 for the specified full-dose tablets, subject to acceleration provisions. The company’s primary Biktarvy patent is estimated to expire in 2036 in the United States and 2033 in the European Union.

Our reading: Biktarvy’s U.S. market position and patent protection provide a substantial competitive position, although generic-entry provisions and pricing pressure limit its duration and economics. Our reading: Gilead’s distribution relationships and experience with complex cell therapy manufacturing support competition, but cell therapy’s recent sales decline shows that these capabilities do not prevent rivals from taking demand.

Growth opportunities

Gilead is pursuing growth through existing medicines, new uses for approved products and a research pipeline in virology, oncology and inflammation. In HIV prevention, Yeztugo gives the company a twice-yearly option alongside Descovy. Gilead launched Bixlenvo, a daily oral combination for virally suppressed adults with HIV, in the United States in the third quarter of 2026 following its August approval.

The company is developing longer-acting HIV options. Its application for once-weekly oral lenacapavir for prevention is under FDA review, and Gilead expects a regulatory decision in early February 2027. It also expects to file an islatravir and lenacapavir combination for HIV treatment; if approved, the company says it would be a once-weekly oral regimen for virally suppressed people.

In cancer, Gilead received European approval in the third quarter of 2026 for Trodelvy with pembrolizumab as a first-line treatment for a type of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. It is also developing cell therapies and antibody-drug conjugates for additional cancers. In inflammation, Gilead is advancing investigational medicines for inflammatory bowel disease and expects to begin Phase 3 studies of invistagrast in ulcerative colitis in 2027.

Gilead also adds programs through collaborations, licensing and acquisitions. It expects 2026 total product sales between $31 and $31.3 billion, including approximately $1 billion from Yeztugo. These expectations depend on commercial performance and, for investigational therapies, trial and regulatory outcomes.

Structural risks

• HIV concentration and pricing: Gilead receives a substantial portion of revenue from HIV products. The company expects a total net impact of approximately $1.5 billion on Biktarvy revenue in 2028 from lower Medicare pricing and related effects in other U.S. channels. Its preliminary analysis may change.

• Patent expiry and generic entry: Patent challenges and loss of exclusivity can expose medicines to generic competition. Settlement provisions can permit earlier entry in certain circumstances, and patent expiration dates differ between the United States and Europe.

• Clinical and regulatory setbacks: Drug development can fail or be delayed, and regulatory approval is required before a medicine can be sold. Gilead’s monthly oral HIV candidate GS-3107 is on clinical hold after unexpected effects from metabolites.

• Manufacturing and supply: Gilead depends on outside manufacturers and testing laboratories for most drug products and ingredients. Interruptions or difficulties at its own facilities, contractors or partners can limit supply. Cell therapy also requires reliable processing of each patient’s cells and management of potentially serious side effects.

• Reimbursement and policy: Government pricing rules, required discounts and rebates can reduce net sales. Gilead identified a greater than $500 million headwind in 2026 from Affordable Care Act changes and other government policies.

• Partners and transactions: Collaboration partners control the resources they devote to shared programs, and disagreements can delay or end development or commercialization. Acquisitions, licensing and other strategic transactions carry additional risks.

Bottom line

Our reading

Gilead is a medicine business anchored by recurring HIV treatment and prevention sales, with liver disease and oncology providing additional revenue. Its HIV market position and patents support that business, but dependence on those products leaves it exposed to price regulation and eventual generic competition. New HIV formulations and a broader clinical pipeline offer routes to replace or expand sales, while trial outcomes, approvals and competitive pressure remain important uncertainties.