It was developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. The way they can afford to make it cheap for people who can't pay is by charging high prices for insured Americans. You can see this with their earlier developed treatment for hepatitis C:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilead_Sciences#Pricing
Gilead came under intense criticism for its high pricing of its patented drug sofosbuvir (sold under the brand name Sovaldi), used to treat hepatitis C. In the US, for instance, it was launched at $1,000 per pill or $84,000 for the standard 84-day course, but it was drastically cheaper in the developing world; in India, it dropped as low as $4.29 per pill.
Low priced HIV drugs for the poor is part PR and part pragmatism. Poor people can't pay the sorts of drug prices that insured Americans do, and poor countries aren't going to enforce drug patents purely for the benefit of American corporations, e.g.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicines_and_Related_Substanc...
Gilead looks gracious by preemptively embracing the situation that was going to occur anyway (poor patients aren't going to pay high prices).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilead_Sciences#Pricing
Gilead came under intense criticism for its high pricing of its patented drug sofosbuvir (sold under the brand name Sovaldi), used to treat hepatitis C. In the US, for instance, it was launched at $1,000 per pill or $84,000 for the standard 84-day course, but it was drastically cheaper in the developing world; in India, it dropped as low as $4.29 per pill.
Low priced HIV drugs for the poor is part PR and part pragmatism. Poor people can't pay the sorts of drug prices that insured Americans do, and poor countries aren't going to enforce drug patents purely for the benefit of American corporations, e.g.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicines_and_Related_Substanc...
Gilead looks gracious by preemptively embracing the situation that was going to occur anyway (poor patients aren't going to pay high prices).