Stocks of Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Flying High

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By Stefan Larson on November 4, 2014 BioPharma, Market

Even though the drugs of hepatitis C manufactured by Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) are in the news, it is the HIV drug franchise of the company that is responsible for bringing in all the revenues.

The company is pocketing billions in revenue figures, all thanks to the HIV drugs of the company. The company recently released two of its new therapies for the cure of HIV, and the expectations are that the new drugs will have huge sales figures.

The sale volume of both the drugs, Complera and Stribid, surged this year and chances are that the company will continue to see growth in the sale figures of the respective drugs in the upcoming quarters.

There are much developments going on in the HIV treatment due to the innovative testing and latest treatment methods. The lifespan of HIV patients has almost doubled in the last 20 years; however, there is still a lot to be done.

World Health Organization recently released its research report, according to which, around 1.5 million people passed away due to HIV in the year 2012 alone. Moreover, there are about 33 million people who have been diagnosed with the disease. Although most of the patients belong to distanced regions of the globe, the disease is not so uncommon in United States too.

According to a report of CDC (Centers for Disease Control), US gets around 50,000 new cases of HIV each year; and around 200,000 out of 1.1 million people who are suspected of having the disease remain undiagnosed.

Since so many people remain undiagnosed, they also remain untreated. Perhaps this is the reason why many states in the US have increased their efforts to eradicate the disease. The plans implemented by several states revolve around identifying the patient by running at-risk tests on the suspected persons. New York has made a plan, which it hopes, will eliminate the disease. Similarly, Washington has launched a project whereby the preventative HIV drug manufactured by Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD), Truvada- which is a combination of Gilead’s Emtriva and Viread, will be given free of cost to suspected people.

Chances are that more states will follow the lead of Washington of New York, which means that the demand for HIV therapies will climb up even further.

The Stribild drug manufactured by Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) is a combination of several different drugs namely, Tybost, Viteka, Emtriva and Viread. The drug got its FDA approval back in 2012, and since then it has become the number 1 pill for HIV treatment. Market share of stribild is impacting the financials of Gilead heavily. The sales of the drug increased by 128 percent and reached to $328 million during the recent year.

Demand for Gilead’s Complera is also on a rise. The sale figures of this drug increased to $183 million from previously held figures of $127 million.

The stocks of Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) is on a rise. The company, on the last trading day, October 3, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $112.31 and closed at a price of $109.98, after hitting the highest figures of $112.80.