PharmaChem to build plant for Gilead drugs

PharmaChem Technologies will construct another plant at its site in Grand Bahama to make active pharmaceutical ingredients for Gilead Sciences. The cost of the new facility is expected to exceed $120 million. A Gilead partner for more than a decade, PharmaChem already makes the HIV drug tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) at the site. Just last week, Gilead received FDA approval for Descovy, a new HIV drug containing tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) and emtricitabine. TAF, like TDF, is a prodrug of tenofovir. Gilead says TAF has demonstrated antiviral efficacy similar to that of its TDF-containing drug Viread at a much smaller dose.