FOSTER CITY, Calif. — Third-quarter product sales at Gilead Sciences rose 13% to $8.3 billion. On the strength of that quarter, the drugmaker lifted what it expects to sell across all of 2026, it said in its earnings release on Thursday.
Total revenue came to the same figure, $8.3 billion, which was 7% above the year-ago quarter. HIV medicines did most of the work. They brought in $6.2 billion, up 18%, helped by higher average realized prices, growing demand for HIV prevention and inventory movements that ran in the company’s favor.
Biktarvy sales rose 10% to $4.1 billion. Descovy did more of the heavy lifting on growth, up 49% to $1 billion, the release said.
“Gilead delivered an exceptional third quarter, with our strongest year-over-year base business growth in more than a decade, reflecting the strength, breadth and durability of our business,”
He put the guidance raise in context, too: this latest increase brings the total added to the full-year base business outlook to $1.6 billion since the start of 2026. Sales of HIV prevention products, he said, nearly doubled from a year earlier.
The new range for 2026 product sales is $31 billion to $31.3 billion. In August, the company had guided to $30.1 billion to $30.4 billion. Excluding Veklury, sales are now expected between $30.7 billion and $31 billion.
The outlook for earnings per share moved the other way. Gilead put its full-year diluted loss per share at $4.40 to $4.05, wider than the $3.75 to $3.40 loss it had expected in August.
That guidance, the company said, includes an impact of about $9.88 a share from $12.4 billion in acquired in-process research and development charges tied to the Arcellx, Tubulis, Ouro Medicines and PepStar transactions announced this year, net of the Lakefront collaboration and related taxes.
In the quarter itself, diluted earnings per share were $1.94, down from $2.43 a year earlier. Gilead said the drop reflected net losses on equity securities this year against gains a year ago, along with higher operating expenses and a higher tax bill, partly offset by the higher product sales.
On a non-GAAP basis, diluted earnings were $2.55 a share, up from $2.47. Product gross margin was 81.0%, up from 78.6%.
Not every product line grew. Veklury sales fell 69% to $86 million as COVID-19 hospitalizations eased, and cell therapy sales fell 18% to $355 million, which the company attributed to competitive headwinds.
Trodelvy sales rose 42% to $506 million on higher demand, the release said. Sales in the liver disease portfolio rose 13% to $927 million, helped by Livdelzi.
Operating cash flow for the quarter was $5 billion. Dividends took $1 billion of that, and the company spent another $370 million buying back its own shares.
At Sept. 30, Gilead held $6.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable debt securities. At the end of 2025 the figure was $10.6 billion. Acquisitions account for much of the drop, along with debt repayments, the dividends and the buybacks.
Elsewhere in the release, the company noted FDA approval of Bixlenvo. It is a single tablet, taken for HIV by adults whose virus is already suppressed on a stable antiretroviral regimen.
Shareholders will get a fourth-quarter dividend of 82 cents a share. Gilead’s board declared it payable on Dec. 30, for stockholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 15.
Gilead said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has finished setting a maximum fair price for Biktarvy under Medicare. The new price takes effect Jan. 1, 2028, and will affect Biktarvy revenue from that date.
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