Gilead built its name on drugs that treat HIV. This quarter, the drugs that prevent it stole the show.
The reason for the beat is the HIV prevention business. Chief executive officer Daniel O'Day called the growth "unprecedented."
That $1 billion mark matters because prevention drugs work differently from treatments. They aim to stop HIV before it takes hold.
Reaching that level shows the market is real and growing, not just a niche. It also gives Gilead a second growth engine beyond its HIV treatment drugs.
Gilead's newest prevention drug, Yeztugo, is a long-acting option that racked up $232 million in quarterly sales. Analysts had expected $219 million, so this was a clear win.
The drug is new, so those numbers point to a strong start.
Gilead kept its full-year target for Yeztugo at $1 billion. The company has room to raise that bar later, but for now it is staying cautious.
Descovy, the older prevention drug, posted a 48% jump in sales. That shows the growth is not just coming from the newest drug.
It means the prevention business has depth. Descovy is holding up well too, which gives Gilead breathing room as Yeztugo ramps up.
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Biktarvy, Gilead's top-selling HIV treatment, brought in $3.8 billion, slightly above expectations. So while prevention gets the attention, the treatment side of the business remains the biggest source of cash.
Gilead was busy outside the lab this quarter, closing three acquisitions in as many months.
In April, it wrapped up the purchase of Arcellx Inc., a cancer biotech, in a deal worth up to $7.8 billion.
In May, it completed the acquisition of Tubulis GmbH, a private cancer drug developer. The deal could total $5 billion, including $3.15 billion paid upfront, and it adds a promising ovarian cancer drug to Gilead's pipeline.
In June, Gilead and Lakefront Biotherapeutics NV closed the purchase of Ouro Medicines, a developer of antibody drugs for autoimmune diseases. That deal could reach $2.18 billion.
Those deals came with a big accounting charge.
That charge pushed the company to an adjusted loss of $6.75 per share. The loss came in smaller than analysts had forecast.
Charges like these look bad on paper but do not change the underlying business.
The three deals cover different parts of medicine.
Together, they give Gilead a much wider pipeline, which is a lot of ground to cover in one quarter.
Gilead raised the low end of its full-year product sales forecast by $100 million. That is management saying it expects the momentum to last.
For investors, the quarter is a reminder that Gilead is becoming a different company. HIV treatments still pay the bills, but prevention drugs are growing faster, and the acquisitions point the needle toward new areas.
The company is not just defending what it already has. It is spending big to move into cancer and autoimmune disease.
The adjusted loss looks scary at first glance. But it comes from a one-time charge tied to the deals, not from weakening sales.
The rest of the year will show whether the momentum holds. For anyone watching Gilead, the growth underneath is what matters, and the one-time loss does not change that.
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