Gilead’s Growth from Enemy to Ally of the LGBTQ+ Community
On February 2, 2021, Gilead Sciences Inc. issued a press release announcing its collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to combat the HIV epidemic and promote transgender justice. The pharmaceutical company leads the research and production of HIV medicines. By giving a two-years $3.2 million grant to the HRC–the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the US–the HIV giant reinforced its commitment to addressing healthcare disparities. “The grant to HRC builds on our commitment to advance equity in healthcare, particularly in Black communities and other communities of color that are disproportionately affected by HIV and other diseases,” said Daniel O’Day, Gilead Science’s chairman and chief executive officer.
A Redemption Arc
Despite its recent efforts to support social justice initiatives, Gilead Sciences Inc. has a subpar track record when showing allyship to the LBTQ+ community, one of the demographic groups most affected by the HIV epidemic. According to an HRC study, if current numbers continue, 1 in 6 gay men will be affected by HIV in their lifetimes.
The first of such offenses occurred in 2016, when the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) issued an advertising campaign against Gilead Sciences, following a Los Angeles Times article titled, “Gilead Scandal: Gay Men, we don’t care about your kidneys and bones, only the money.” Both the campaign and the article exposed Gilead’s manipulation of the patent of their bestselling HIV drug, tenofovir. Tenofovir has grave secondary effects like bone loss and kidney damage. In order to extend its patent and expand the revenue of tenofovir, Gilead’s higher ups halted research of other less dangerous alternatives for HIV medication in 2004. As a response, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation asked the Federal Drugs Administration and the US congress to conduct formal research into the viability of Gilead’s patents.
In 2020, Gilead faced further backlash for having donated $12,000 to the senators that supported the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, between 2014 and 2018. Ironically enough, Gilead’s first effort in supporting the LBTQ+ community encompassed airing television ads for its HIV prevention medication, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), that same year. PrEP, also known as its brand version Truvada, is a safer form of the drug tenofovir, which shows the positive impact of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in advancing safer alternatives of HIV medication.
Gilead’s television campaign Healthysexual featured a gay couple, a transgender woman, and a young couple of colour, three demographics disproportionately affected by HIV. The ad led viewers to a site that featured resources to get tested for HIV, LGBTQ+ friendly doctors approved to give prescription medicines, and places that give free condoms.
In a statement regarding the campaign, Gilead said: “When developing this campaign, it was important to us that the materials feature a diverse group of individuals who are representative of the communities most impacted by HIV, including young Black and Latino gay men, as well as cis-gender and transgender women.”
Dr. Antony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, praised the ad’s realistic portrayal of HIV, plus its emphasis on promoting HIV testing and preventive resources. Regardless, taking Gilead’s preventive HIV medicines is not affordable, with the monthly price for PrEP coming in at a hefty $1000 a month.
Fierce Pharma writer Natalie Missakian found that the outreach campaign helped increase a positive response from gay and cisgender men in a survey commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign and Wells Fargo, regarding the efforts of pharmaceutical companies towards understanding the specific needs of the LGBTQ+ community. Missakian said that Gilead’s preventive HIV prompted 21% of the 15,000 surveyed bisexual and gay cisgender men to agree with the statement, “Pharmaceutical companies adequately outreach to and understand my identity as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary and/or queer individual.”
Allyship and Marketing
The COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on pharmaceutical efforts to help charitable organizations. Accordingly, Gilead foundation’s board decided to allocate $200 million to three areas: funding health justice initiatives, funding local community groups, and matching employee donations to eligible non-profits at a higher rate.
On the first front, Gilead launched the Creating Possible Fund, which Gilead’s higher ups say will give grants to organizations working on “innovative approaches to complex social issues, especially those affecting the most underserved members of society, including people of color and LGBTQ+ youth.” On the second front, Gilead higher ups plan to award funds to disaster relief and humanitarian efforts, in the places where their employees live. On the last front, they plan to continue their Giving Together Program, which matches employee donations to eligible non-profits. Gilead allocated an additional $15,000 to their 12,000 employees for this initiative.
In 2022, Gilead joined GLAAD, the HRC, the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) to address the monkeypox pandemic outbreak. Gilead allotted $5 million to a public education regarding vaccine hesitancy, a public policy response, and a global outbreak emergency funding. GLAAD reported that, “The Global Monkeypox Outbreak Emergency Fund will provide grants of up to $50,000 to existing Gilead grantee organizations working in regions with active MPV outbreaks to respond to this growing emergency.” In a press release, Gilead reported that “of that group, 98% of the cases were among gay or bisexual men and 41% were living with HIV.”
Other than their efforts to address misinformation in relation to the LGBTQ+ community, Gilead has made strides to address the high prices and the access gap of their HIV medication, boosting their co-pay assistance program payment from $4,800 to $7,200 per patient each year. Gilead added ‘inclusion’ as part of its core values, while its general counsel and executive vice president of corporate affairs, Ben Pletcher, created a Pride group currently attended by 1,000 out of Gilead’s 11,000 employees. “It gives people the confidence, the voice and the platform to speak out,” Pletcher said. Due to these strides and its work developing lifesaving HIV drugs, the San Francisco Business Times awarded Gilead Sciences Inc. with the 2020 Corporate Pride Award.
As of 2023, Gilead has partnered with Gay Games 11 Hong Kong 2023 (GGHK) for the Colours of Life Campaign, meant to jumpstart conversations about the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda in Asia. The campaign will feature stories by para-badminton player Daniel Chan Ho-yuen, award-winning stand-up comedian Vivek Mahbubani, the co-chair of GGHK Lisa Lam, and Gilead’s vice-president and general manager of Asia Dustin Haines. The stock price of Gilead Sciences Inc. increased from $69.36 billion since February 2020 to $87.49 billion in February 2023, showing the profitability of their new inclusive approach to business.
Source: Yahoo Finance (NasdaqGS - NasdaqGS Real-time price, 2023).
Gilead’s stock has increased due to their social responsibility efforts to grow as allies to the LGBTQ+ Community.
Sources
AHF. (2016, June 7). AHF Launches “Gilead Scandal: Gay Men, We Don’t Care About Your Kidneys and Bones” – New National Ad Campaign. AIDS Health. https://www.aidshealth.org/2016/06/ahf-launches-gilead-scandal-gay-men-dont-care-kidneys-bones-new-national-ad-campaign/
Fitzsimons, T. (2018, May 30). With TV ads, drugmaker Gilead brings HIV prevention drug out of the closet. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/tv-ads-drugmaker-gilead-brings-hiv-prevention-drug-out-closet-n878721
Gilead Sciences. (2022, October 19). Biopharma Gilead Sciences and Gay Games 11 Hong Kong 2023 Join Up to Debut "Colors of Life". Yahoo Finance. https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/biopharma-gilead-sciences-gay-games-095000161.html
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (2022, August 9). Gilead Sciences And A Coalition Of LGBTQ+ And Human Rights-Focused Organizations Mobilize To Address Monkeypox Public Health Emergency. Investors Gilead. https://investors.gilead.com/news/news-details/2022/Gilead-Sciences-and-a-Coalition-of-LGBTQ-and-Human-Rights-Focused-Organizations-Mobilize-to-Address-Monkeypox-Public-Health-Emergency/default.aspx
Gilead Sciences Inc. (n.d.). Press Releases. Gilead. https://www.gilead.com/news-and-press/press-room/press-releases/2021/2/gilead-and-the-human-rights-campaign-will-work-together-to-combat-hiv-epidemic-and-promote-transgender-justice
HRC Foundation. (n.d.). How HIV Impacts LGBTQ People. Human Rights Campaign. https://www.hrc.org/resources/hrc-issue-brief-hiv-aids-and-the-lgbt-community
Missakian, N. (2021, September 16). Pharma outreach to LGBTQ community lacking, reveals untapped market beyond HIV and PrEP: survey. Fierce Pharma. https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/pharma-outreach-to-lgbtq-lacking-survey-finds-leaving-untapped-potential-market-beyond
NasdaqGS - NasdaqGS Real-time price. (Retrieved Feb 13, 2023). Yahoo Finance. https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/quote/GILD?p=GILD&.tsrc=fin-srch
Silverman, E. (2022, March 15). Gilead faces criticism for donations to state senators who backed ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill in Florida. Stat News. https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2022/03/15/gilead-hiv-florida-lgbtq-gay-aids-donations/
Snyder Bulik, B. (2021, August 6). Gilead Foundation bounces back with a bang—$200M in the bank and ambitious goals. Fierce Pharma. https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/gilead-foundation-bounces-back-a-bang-200-million-bank-and-ambitious-goals
Useche, J. (2022, August 9). GLAAD joins Gilead Sciences and a coalition of LGBTQ and public health organizations to bolster global response to the monkeypox public health emergency. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-joins-gilead-sciences-and-coalition-lgbtq-and-public-health-organizations-bolster-global
