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The chief executive of Gilead Sciences, the nation’s leading manufacturer of HIV drugs, defended the high cost of a key drug that prevents the lethal infection, telling a House committee Thursday that its hefty profits pay for continued research. “We have taken the disease from a death sentence to a manageable clinical condition, but we’re not done yet,” Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day told committee members. “We have to be sure that Americans get our medicines at a price that allows us to invest in research.’’ (Rowland, 5/16)

The latest attempt to spotlight Gilead Sciences and its business practices shifted on Thursday to Congress, where a sometimes contentious hearing was held to explore the cost of an HIV prevention pill the company sells and the role the federal government played in discovering the pricey medicine. The three-hour session was punctuated by a mix of bipartisan sparring that, at times, addressed the larger issue of patients versus profits as much as the Gilead pill, which is called Truvada and has been the focus of intense controversy in recent weeks. (Silverman, 5/16)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) confronted a CEO Thursday for pricing a drug designed to reduce the risk of HIV transmission at $8 in Australia but over $1,500 in the U.S. ..."I think it's important here that we notice that we the public, we the people, developed this drug. We paid for this drug, we lead and developed all the patents to create Prep and then that patent has been privatized despite the fact that the patent is owned by the public, who refused to enforce it," Ocasio-Cortez said. (Rodrigo, 5/16)