BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Cure cash

Gilead uses grant program to place bets on best ways to clear HIV

February 2, 2017 11:05 PM UTC

With the goal now to clear rather than just suppress HIV, Gilead Sciences Inc. is using a $22 million grant program to back the scientific strategies it thinks are most likely to empty the HIV reservoir or produce better methods to measure it. High on its list is a toll-like receptor (TLR)-based “shock and kill” approach that could provide an alternative to Gilead’s own TLR7 agonist, GS-9620.

The program, whose 12 recipients were announced last month, will provide three years of no-strings-attached funding for academics, not-for-profits and community groups working on translational research and patient engagement related to HIV. ...