nasdaq gild s & p 500 component nasdaq biotechnology component industry pharmaceutics biotechnology founded 1988 ; 28 years ago 1988 headquarters foster city california u.s. key people john c. martin executive chairman products ambisome atripla cayston emtriva flolan harvoni hepsera letairis lexiscan macugen ranexa sovaldi tamiflu truvada viread vistide revenue us 32.639 billion 2015 1 operating income us 22.193 billion 2015 1 net income us 18.108 billion 2015 1 total assets us 51.839 billion 2015 1 total equity us 19.113 billion 2015 2 number of employees 7 900 2015 3 website www.gilead.com gilead sciences is an american biopharmaceutical company that discovers develops and commercializes therapeutics . for many years since the company was founded the company concentrated primarily on antiviral drugs used in the treatment of hiv hepatitis b hepatitis c and influenza . in 2006 gilead acquired two companies which were developing drugs to treat patients with pulmonary diseases . the company s current commercially available products include atripla complera emtriva viread tybost vitekta truvada stribild harvoni hepsera sovaldi zydelig letairis lexiscan ranexa cayston tamiflu ambisome and macugen . 4 headquartered and founded in foster city california gilead has operations in north america europe and australia . as of the end of 2015 the company had approximately 7 900 full time employees . 5 gilead is a member of the nasdaq biotechnology index and the s & p 500 . the company s name and logo refer to the balm of gilead inspired by a 1965 play by lanford wilson featuring the underworld adventures of the patrons of the namesake cafe . contents 1 history 1.1 entry into the cardiovascular and respiratory therapeutic areas 1.2 timetable of mergers and acquisitions 2 board of directors 3 senior management 4 product portfolio 5 product pipeline 6 terminated from product pipeline 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit external video gregg alton of gilead sciences & others the evolution of hiv aids therapies a conversation 2012 chemical heritage foundation gilead sciences was founded in june 1987 by michael l. riordan a medical doctor who was 29 years old at the time . 6 7 8 riordan graduated from washington university the johns hopkins school of medicine and the harvard business school . 9 10 11 three core scientific advisers worked with riordan to create the company and establish its scientific vision . these were peter dervan of caltech doug melton of harvard and harold weintraub of the fred hutchinson cancer research center . riordan served as ceo from inception until 1996 . 12 menlo ventures a venture capital firm where riordan worked for a year made the first investment in gilead of 2 million and menlo s partner dubose montgomery served as chairman of the board until 1993 when riordan became chairman . 8 riordan also recruited as scientific advisers harold varmus a nobel laureate who later became director of the national institutes of health and jack szostak recipient of the nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 2009 . 13 the company s primary therapeutic focus was and continues to be in antiviral medicines a field that interested riordan because he contracted dengue fever an untreatable viral disease while working in malnutrition clinics as a henry luce scholar in the philippines . 14 15 riordan recruited donald rumsfeld to join the board of directors in 1988 followed by benno c. schmidt sr. gordon moore and george p. shultz . riordan tried to recruit warren buffett as an investor and board member but was unsuccessful . 16 under the technical leadership of scientist dr. mark matteucci the company focused its early discovery research on making small strands of dna oligomers to assess the potential of genetic code blockers gene therapy . its development of small molecule antiviral therapeutics began in 1991 when ceo riordan and r & d head john c. martin in licensed a group of nucleotide compounds discovered in two european academic labs ; one of the compounds was tenofovir a pro drug of which trade named viread became one of the most widely used anti aids drugs . 17 in 1990 gilead entered into a collaborative research agreement with glaxo for the research and development of genetic code blockers also known as antisense . this collaboration was terminated in 1998 and gilead s antisense intellectual property portfolio was sold to isis pharmaceuticals . gilead debuted on the nasdaq in january 1992 . its initial public offering raised 86.25 million in proceeds . in june 1996 gilead launched vistide cidofovir injection for the treatment of cytomegalovirus cmv retinitis in patients with aids . the company cooperated with pharmacia & upjohn to market the product outside the united states . in january 1997 donald rumsfeld a board member since 1988 was appointed chairman of the company . 18 he stood down from the board in january 2001 when appointed united states secretary of defense at the start of george w. bush s first term as president . federal disclosure forms indicate that rumsfeld owned between us 5 million and us 25 million in gilead stock . the rise in gilead s share prices from us 35 to us 57 per share will have added between us 2.5 million to us 15.5 million to rumsfeld s net worth . 19 in march 1999 gilead acquired nexstar pharmaceuticals of boulder colorado following two years of negotiations with the company . at the time nexstar s annual sales of 130 million was three times gilead s sales . nexstar s two revenue generating drugs were ambisome an injectable fungal treatment and daunoxome an oncology drug taken by hiv patients . also in 1999 roche announced first approval of tamiflu oseltamivir for the treatment of influenza . tamiflu was originally discovered by gilead and licensed to roche for late phase development and marketing . viread tenofovir achieved first approval in 2001 for the treatment of hiv . in january 2003 gilead completed its acquisition of triangle pharmaceuticals . the company also announced its first full year of profitability . later that year hepsera adefovir was approved for the treatment of chronic hepatitis b and emtriva emtricitabine for the treatment of hiv . in 2004 gilead launched truvada a fixed dose combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine . in november 2005 president george w. bush urged the united states congress to pass 7.1 billion in emergency funding to prepare for the possible bird flu pandemic of which 1 billion is solely dedicated to the purchase and distribution of tamiflu . in july 2006 the u.s. food and drug administration fda approved atripla a once a day single tablet regimen for hiv combining sustiva efavirenz a bristol myers squibb product and truvada emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil a gilead product . 20 21 gilead purchased raylo chemicals inc. in november 2006 for a price of 133.3 million . 22 raylo chemical based in edmonton alberta was a wholly owned subsidiary of degussa ag a german company . raylo chemical was a custom manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients and advanced intermediates for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries . in 2009 the company received the award for one of the fastest growing companies by fortune . in the same year they were also named as one america s top companies to work for by forbes . on july 16 2012 the u.s. fda approved the first drug shown to reduce the risk of hiv infection manufactured by gilead sciences . the pill truvada as a preventive measure prep for people who are at high risk of getting hiv through sexual activity . 23 citing a market capitalization of us 113 billion and stock appreciation of 100 % and describing their 2011 purchase of pharmasset for 11 billion as one of the best pharma acquisitions ever gilead sciences was reported as the number 4 ranked drug company of 2013 by forbes magazine . 24 the strong performance of gilead in 2013 has also been linked to the fda approval and strong sales performance of their potentially revolutionary hepatitis c drug sovaldi . 25 with us 4q 13 sales estimated by deutsche bank at 53m . 26 on july 11 2014 the committee of finance of the united states senate launched an investigation into the pricing of the hepatitis c drug sovaldi sofosbuvir . this was in reaction to the high cost per pill 1 000 which raised serious questions about the extent to which the market was operating efficiently and rationally for this drug . in a letter to ceo john c. martin senators ron wyden chairman and charles e. grassley member asked gilead to provide a series of documents to the committee and to answer a list of questions in order for the committee to get a better understanding of how the company had arrived at the price for this drug . 27 entry into the cardiovascular and respiratory therapeutic areas edit in 2006 gilead completed two acquisitions that allowed the company to branch out from its historical antiviral franchise into the cardiovascular and respiratory therapeutic arenas . myogen 28 based in boulder colorado was completing phase 3 studies of ambrisentan now marketed as letairis an orally available endothelin receptor antagonist . the u.s. fda subsequently approved ambrisentan for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension in june 2007 . 29 30 31 under an agreement with glaxosmithkline myogen marketed flolan epoprostenol sodium in the united states for the treatment of primary pulmonary hypertension . additionally myogen was developing in phase 3 studies darusentan 32 also an endothelin receptor antagonist for the potential treatment of resistant hypertension . the other acquisition was corus pharma . corus s lead product candidate aztreonam lysine for inhalation is an antibiotic with activity against gram negative bacteria including pseudomonas aeruginosa which can cause lung infections in patients with cystic fibrosis . the product is in phase 3 studies . 33 gilead also obtained an inhalation formulation of two antibiotics for treatment of respiratory infections . 34 gilead expanded its move into respiratory therapeutics in 2007 by entering into a licensing agreement with parion for an epithelial sodium channel inhibitor for the treatment of pulmonary diseases including cystic fibrosis chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis . 35 in 2009 gilead acquired cv therapeutics for about 1.4 b. this acquisition brought ranexa and lexiscan as commercial products . 36 current gilead sciences ceo is john f. milligan . timetable of mergers and acquisitions edit timetable of mergers and acquisitions year company price notes 1999 nexstar pharmaceuticals 550 million nexstar had two drugs ambisome and daunoxome of which only ambisome is still in gilead s portfolio although it is not a major source of income for the company . daunoxome was sold to diatos in 2006 . 37 as important as the products nexstar also provided gilead with a much needed sales force and commercialization team in europe and australia and a manufacturing plant in san dimas california . 38 2003 triangle pharmaceuticals 464 million triangle owned the development and commercialization rights to emtricitabine which although marketed as a stand alone product emtriva is also a component of the more profitable combination products atripla and truvada . 39 2006 corus pharma inc. 365 million the acquisition of corus signaled gilead s entry into the respiratory arena . corus was developing aztreonam lysine for the treatment of patients with cystic fibrosis who are infected with pseudomonas aeruginosa 2006 myogen inc. 2.5 billion with two drugs in development ambrisentan and darusentan and one marketed product flolan for pulmonary diseases the acquisition of myogen has solidified gilead s position in this therapeutic arena . 2006 raylo chemicals inc. 148 million this edmonton alberta site will be used for process research and for manufacturing compounds for both clinical studies and commercial products . 40 2007 nycomed fr . altana cork 47 million this commercial manufacturing site was purchased by gilead in place of building out the site in dublin . this site used to be altana in cork which was