Gilead Sciences Portfolio holdings

Gilead Sciences is an American biopharmaceutical company that researches and develops antiviral drugs for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, influenza and COVID-19. Michael Riordan, a doctor who was then an associate at the venture firm Menlo Ventures, founded it in 1987 as Oligogen, a name pointing to oligonucleotides, small strands of DNA. Riordan used Oligogen only while clearing a trademark issue with a California nonprofit, and he took the Gilead name from the Balm of Gilead, which he first met in a Lanford Wilson play. Gilead discovered the flu drug Tamiflu and licensed it to Roche, and its 2011 purchase of Pharmasset brought it sofosbuvir, approved in 2013 as the hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi. In 2017 Gilead said it would acquire Kite Pharma as its entry into cell therapy, a deal that had produced two lymphoma treatments, Yescarta and Tecartus, by 2022.