Approved for use in 2004, Truvada is an antiviral drug developed by Gilead Sciences Ltd to prevent and treat HIV. Truvada contains the ingredient tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), which has been identified as toxic.

Problems with Truvada

Despite being one of the first effective treatments for HIV to emerge on the pharmaceutical market, it quickly became clear that TDF was causing serious harm to the kidneys and bones, with many Truvada users reporting adverse side effects. 

Other HIV drugs containing TDF have also resulted in harm.

Gilead was well aware of the serious risks posed by TDF before 2001, and had even developed tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF), a safer and equally effective alternative to TDF. As TAF can be administered at a much lower dose than TDF, it has far fewer side effects.

Despite this, Gilead withheld their safer product TAF from the market for more than a decade, and knowingly continued to develop products containing TDF including Truvada for their own monetary gain, prioritizing profit over their users’ health. This continued even when patients increasingly began reporting serious side effects from Gilead’s TDF drugs.

In doing so, Gilead failed to adequately warn users and medical professionals about the severity of risks associated with TDF and Truvada, including the necessity of monitoring patients for these side effects.

In short, Gilead:

1. Knew the severity of risks associated with TDF before releasing its products onto the market.
2. Withheld the safer alternative TAF for more than a decade and knowingly continued producing, promoting, and releasing TDF drugs, despite increasing reports of serious side effects.
3. Prioritized profit over user safety
4. Failed to adequately warn users and medical professionals about the severity of risks associated with TDF and Truvada.