As of March 2024, the litigation involving over 20,000 plaintiffs in a California coordinated proceeding and several thousand in federal court against Gilead continues to progress. The focus of these lawsuits is on Gilead’s alleged deliberate delay in developing a safer version of the drug tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) for financial reasons, despite knowledge of its potential toxicity to the bones and kidneys.
The cases, which also involve other drugs containing TDF such as Viread, Atripla, Complera, and Stribild, are moving back to trial court with the aim of advancing towards trials in 2024. While there have been no court-approved settlements or jury verdicts yet, the first bellwether test trials are scheduled in California state and federal courts, as per Gilead’s 2022 annual report. The company faces lawsuits from thousands of plaintiffs across multiple states, with many cases pending in California.