Gilead Sciences scored a landmark victory last year when the FDA approved Yeztugo for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), with phase 3 trials showing at least 99.9% of participants who received Yeztugo remained HIV negative. Those sorts of results led one Gilead exec to tell PharmaVoice the med could help “end HIV.”
Overall, Gilead’s PrEP business cracked $1 billion in quarterly sales in Q2 2026, with Yeztugo contributing $232 million to the haul.
But Leerink analyst Daina Graybosch raised questions about Yeztugo’s long-term prospects, noting that future growth will increasingly rely on “hard to acquire” populations with historically low PrEP use — such as the Black community.
Against that backdrop, Gilead has launched a new ad campaign called “Up to Date” that taps comedians Nicole Byer and Devon Walker to normalize conversations about HIV prevention within the Black community using humor and real-world dating scenarios.
It’s a different approach from traditional pharma marketing.
“I think generally people know what pharma ads and campaigns look like, and this is very different than that. This is not just delivering facts and figures. We wanted to create a connection that fosters dialogue,” said Ashley Gildea, vice president, U.S. business unit head for Gilead. “It's moving beyond traditional education into authentic storytelling.”
In the ad, a young Black woman is woken by a middle-of-the-night text message that reads: “u up?” She replies, “Maybe, u up to date on your HIV testing like I am?” Then, comedian Nicole Byer appears in the woman’s bedroom in dual “angel” and “devil” roles. While one Nicole is excited about the man seeking a “2 a.m. booty call,” the other says, “Hold up. I know that we are excited, but did you know that nearly half of all new HIV diagnoses in women are Black women? That’s not just a stat. That’s personal.”
Ultimately, the campaign aims to “meet people where they are and reflect real experiences across communities,” according to Gildea.
“People don't experience dating and relationships in a clinical way,” Gildea said. “It's really looking at using real-life dating scenarios to make conversations about HIV prevention, HIV status and PrEP feel more natural and relatable.”
Unmet need, significant barriers
The new ad is “an evolution” of Care for the Culture, Gilead’s HIV prevention campaign aimed at Black communities, Gildea said.
Although Black Americans make up just 13.5% of the U.S. population, they represented 39% of those living with HIV and 38% of new diagnoses in 2023, according to AIDSVu data. In addition, Black people only accounted for 15% of PrEP users in 2024.
Despite the high unmet need, Black people continue to face significant societal, cultural and economic barriers to healthcare.
“There is [a] disproportionately higher rate of HIV diagnoses due to those systemic inequities and structural barriers to care, not individual choice,” Gildea said.
Medical mistrust in Black communities has been shaped by a long history of persistent disparities in care, including stark racial gaps in maternal mortality and abuses such as the U.S. Public Health Service Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee.
For these reasons, Gilead’s “commitment goes beyond medicines,” Gildea said.
“We're working to try to remove societal barriers to care,” she said. “We're advancing health equity for those most affected by HIV, but we have a longstanding commitment to meaningful engagement in Black communities and all communities across the United States with educational programs, with investment and community initiatives.”
Embedding messages in authentic storytelling
Gilead worked with a team of Black creatives for the campaign.
“The authenticity that's being created starts with who is at the table to create the work. ‘Up to Date’ was developed with Black talent. Black writers, Black creators and individuals from the community to provide perspectives and help us create this together from the very beginning,” Gildea said. “That has helped shape everything, from the tone to storytelling, to ensure that ‘Up to Date’ reflects real conversations.”
Using humor and embedding HIV messaging into “everyday experiences” makes difficult topics and conversations easier and more approachable, she said.
“It’s an example of how health communication can be more relevant and engaging and effective when it's grounded in scenarios that use community voices,” Gildea said.
Continuing the work
In 2012, Gilead’s Truvada became the first FDA-approved drug for HIV prevention as PrEP. Since then, higher PrEP coverage has been associated with lower HIV diagnosis rates. A study published last year found that between 2012 and 2022, states with the highest average PrEP coverage saw a 38% decrease in new HIV diagnosis rates, while states with the lowest coverage saw a 27% increase.
Despite the advances, Gilead still has “a lot of work to do” to increase PrEP usage more broadly, Gildea said.
Although the CDC suggests that 2.2 million people in the U.S. could benefit from PrEP, Gildea said, there were just under 600,000 PrEP users in 2024, according to AIDSVu.
Originally approved as a twice-yearly injection, Gilead is gunning to expand access with a weekly oral formulation. Although Yeztugo was nearly 100% effective in clinical trials, its injectable formulation could be a barrier to adoption, with Gilead noting on its recent earnings call that about 80% to 85% of the PrEP market currently uses daily oral medications.
The FDA accepted Gilead’s application for the once-weekly formulation and set a Feb. 2, 2027, PDUFA date
