What do Gilead’s layoffs mean?

Gilead Sciences is laying off about 20% of its sales staff later this summer, STAT’s Adam Feuerstein reports, because the drugs those people sell have lost patent protection.

That explanation makes sense, but the details illustrate the difficult position facing Gilead and its new CEO in 2019.

One employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the soon-to-depart sales people were meant to transition to marketing drugs for the liver disease NASH. Then Gilead’s NASH treatment failed in clinical trials. Another idea was to move them to rheumatoid arthritis, the person said, where Gilead has a late-stage drug. But that treatment’s timeline for approval has been thrust into doubt, so now they’re losing their jobs.

That saga is a microcosm of Gilead’s recent history.

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