Driven by a relentless passion for creating a healthier world for everyone, our team is committed to continuing our leadership in antivirals while growing our leadership in cutting-edge oncology treatments.
Learn more about our scientific innovations in 2021 below:
In 2021, Veklury® (remdesivir) continued to play a key role in the COVID-19 pandemic. This antiviral therapy is approved or authorized in more than 50 countries, and it is the antiviral standard of care for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Veklury and generic remdesivir have been made available to more than 10 million patients around the world, including approximately 3 million people in the developed world and nearly 7 million people in 127 lower-middle-income countries through Gilead’s royalty-free voluntary licensing program. Throughout 2021, we continued to support our voluntary licensing partners to rapidly scale production to meet the evolving global demands for treatment as the virus mutated and surged.
In response to the rapid increase in
In 2021, we continued to develop lenacapavir, our investigational long-acting treatment, to provide potential treatment for people living with multi-drug-resistant HIV, many of whom have very limited treatment options.
Biktarvy® (bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide) continued to demonstrate its critical role as a standard of care for a broad range of people living with HIV. In early 2021, we presented new, long-term data that reinforced Biktarvy’s long-term viral suppression, strong efficacy and a high barrier to resistance in adults that are new to HIV therapy and those who are virologically suppressed and switching to a new regimen.
In October, the FDA approved a new low-dose tablet form of Biktarvy for pediatric patients who are virologically suppressed or new to antiretroviral therapy. Because there continues to be significant unmet need for effective and accessible formulations of antiretroviral therapy to treat children living with HIV, the new formulation will help close the gap between HIV treatment options available for adults and children.
Gilead and Kite Oncology’s portfolio includes four approved medicines including Trodelvy® (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) and Zydelig® (idelalisib) as well as CAR T-cell therapies Yescarta® (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Tecartus® (brexucabtagene autoleucel). Our robust pipeline of investigational compounds, complemented by partnerships, gives us access to promising sources of innovation.
Trodelvy is a striking example of Gilead’s transformative science in cancers with high unmet need. It is approved in more than 35 countries (including the U.S., EU, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Great Britain) as a second-line treatment for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We are rapidly advancing studies to further understand the potential of Trodelvy as a monotherapy and in combination with other therapies in several tumor types, including other forms of breast cancer as well as bladder and lung cancer.
2021 was a historic year for Kite and saw a “coming of age” of CAR T-cell therapy. Kite is reshaping cancer care with two approved CAR T-cell therapies in four indications with more than 6,500 patients treated globally. As a pioneer in cell therapy, Kite is focused on bringing CAR T to patients earlier in their course of treatment, broadening the use of CAR T across hematological malignancies with rapid and reliable manufacturing.
In December 2021, Kite announced results from the landmark study of Yescarta in second-line relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL), the first and largest primary analysis of a head-to-head trial of a CAR T against a standard of care that has been in place for decades. These results represent a potential paradigm shift in the treatment of this disease. Kite shared primary results from the first study to evaluate CAR T as part of first-line therapy in high-risk LBCL, representing an encouraging step forward for the potential use of CAR T earlier in treatment.
