“As expected, Yeztugo has rapidly established itself as the leading long-acting injectable option for HIV prevention,” Gilead Sciences CEO Daniel O’Day told analysts Oct. 29.
The twice-yearly shot made $305 million in the third quarter, according to the company’s earnings release. On the call, O’Day added it to Descovy, Gilead’s daily PrEP pill.
“Yeztugo and Descovy for PrEP combined have 50% market share today and a $4 billion annual run rate,” he said.
An annual run rate projects current sales over a year. It is not the amount already earned during the year.
Johanna Mercier Says Descovy Already Beat Its 2025 Sales
Descovy alone grew 49% in the quarter. “In just 3 quarters, Descovy sales have already exceeded that of full year 2025,” said Johanna Mercier, Gilead’s chief commercial and corporate affairs officer. Part of that, she said, came from “higher average realized price.”
People who try the shot mostly come back. “More than 70% of users have returned for their second injection,” Mercier said.
Pills aren’t going anywhere either. “There are some people that don’t like the injection and there’s still a very strong oral market, both with Descovy as well as generic Truvada,” she said.
Gilead expects the FDA to rule in early February on a once-a-week lenacapavir pill. “This will be the first long-acting oral in the prevention market potentially,” Mercier said.
ViiV’s David Redfern Says Four-Monthly PrEP Data Is ‘In-House’
GSK reported Oct. 28 that Apretude, the shot its ViiV Healthcare unit sells for use every two months, grew 21%. Analysts asked about a version people would need only three times a year.
“We have the data in-house,” said David Redfern, who chairs ViiV’s board, on the earnings call. “We are very confident in the formulation that we have got.”
GSK plans to share the data with regulators by year’s end. Lynn Baxter takes over as ViiV’s CEO on Nov. 1, pharmaphorum reported.
Yeztugo’s $28,000 Price and the People Still Missing From PrEP
Yeztugo lists at about $28,000 a year. Mercier put its pharmacy-benefit coverage at “about 70% or so.” O’Day told analysts “there are ways to improve affordability for patients in America.”
“Coverage does not automatically translate into access and usage,” Carl Schmid of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute said in January, when CVS Caremark agreed to cover the shot, Positively Aware reported. At one St. Louis clinic, 4 in 10 patients prescribed injectable PrEP never got a shot, mostly because of insurance.
Whether Affordable Care Act plans must cover it with no copay is still up to a federal task force that hasn’t updated its PrEP advice since 2023, KFF noted.
AIDSVu, an Emory University project run with Gilead, counted a record 644,170 PrEP users in 2025. Black Americans were 39% of new HIV diagnoses in 2024 and 15% of PrEP users.
“PrEP remains one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent HIV, but access and uptake is still far too uneven,” said Dr. Patrick Sullivan, AIDSVu’s principal scientist.
Grindr wants a piece of it. The app agreed Sept. 30 to buy Freddie, a PrEP telehealth company, for $250 million, and told shareholders that Freddie brings in “more than $400 in monthly revenue per active patient.”
