Fake HIV medication has made its way to U.S. pharmacies—and patients

Since 2019, federal prosecutors, drug manufacturers, and patient safety organizations have uncovered extensive criminal schemes targeting HIV medicines at every point in the supply chain. These schemes undermine trust in the healthcare system, and they endanger patients who rely on high quality, effective medicine to control viral loads and prevent HIV transmission.

Where are these supply chain breaks coming from?

Wholesalers
Pharmacies
Insurers
Pharmacy-to-pharmacy marketplaces
Buy back schemes on social apps

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Wholesalers sold licensed pharmacies secondhand medicine with fake pedigrees

In December 2020 and August 2021, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Gilead Sciences issued the alarming news that counterfeit HIV medicines were circulating in the United States.

Then, in January 2022, the Wall Street Journal broke an astonishing story: Gilead Sciences was suing a ring of drug sellers and distributors that allegedly sold 85,247 of the counterfeit bottles worth more than $250 million to U.S. pharmacies.

Gilead Sciences v Safe Chain Solutions, et al.

The suit accused a complex network of 140 companies and individuals across 13 states of selling fake and diverted medications to U.S. pharmacies using forged track and trace documents.

The network collected bottles of medicine from patients, stripped them of identifying information, refilled and resealed them, and laundered them through distributors with forged pedigrees so that pharmacies didn't realize there was anything wrong with them.

Patients received closed containers of vital medicine that looked legitimate, but sometimes the bottles contained the wrong HIV treatment, over-the-counter painkillers, or actual pebbles. In one case, a patient's sealed bottle contained an antipsychotic medicine that rendered them unable to walk or speak.

Gilead also filed Gilead Sciences v Peter Khaim, which identified a second network of individuals and companies alleged to be engaged in the same activity with New York and New Jersey pharmacies. Some of these defendants used pharmacy-to-pharmacy marketplaces to move their diverted medicine.

Over several years, Gilead settled charges with hundreds of defendants, including SafeChain Solutions, which agreed to pay Gilead $2.7 million in February 2024.

Image of the first page Gilead's Complaint

Gilead Sciences' amended complaint (September 2022) describes the scheme.

Criminal cases related to Gilead's civil suits

USA v Lazaro Hernandez: Lazaro Roberto Hernandez, who Gilead characterized as a kingpin of the black market ring, received a 15-year federal prison sentence and a forfeiture of $238.8 million after admitting to “running a criminal enterprise” and diverting medicines.

USA v Armando Herrera: Another “kingpin,” Armando Herrera, received a 51-month sentence for introducing adulterated and misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.

USA v Adam Brosius, Patrick Boyd and Charles Boyd: The owners of Maryland distributor SafeChain Solutions, Adam Brosius, Patrick Boyd and Charles Boyd were charged with distributing misbranded and adulterated drugs, trafficking medicine products with false documentation, and wire fraud in 2024.

Brosius pleaded guilty to wire fraud in April 2025 and received an eight-year sentence in October 2025.

The Boyd brothers were convicted by jury of conspiracy to introduce adulterated and misbranded drugs to defraud the United States, conspiracy to traffic in medical products with false documentation, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October 2025. They have not yet been sentenced.

USA v Steven Diamantstein: Scripts Wholesale owner Steven Diamantstein was indicted in New Jersey federal court in 2023 for allegedly acquiring unapproved, diverted prescription medicines and fraudulently selling to pharmacies with falsified pedigrees and labels to make them look like legitimate drugs. This case is still in progress.

USA v Boris Aminov: Christy Corvalan, the owner of a Bronx, New York, pharmacy named in Gilead Sciences v Safe Chain was criminally charged along with nine other defendants in USA v Boris Aminov for trafficking in black-market HIV medication and defrauding Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance companies out of at least $20 million. As of December 2025, the Aminov defendants had been sentenced to a cumulative 39 years in prison, with fines and forfeitures of more than $55 million.

Watch PSM's videos about this case

Inside a prescription drug diversion ring:

Documents from SDNY's prosecution of Boris Aminov capture text messages, crime photos, and a step-by-step guide to the deceit.

On-app buyback schemes

Medicine buyback operations, sometimes claiming to be "Buyers Clubs" making medicine available to people who cannot afford them are the first component of the counterfeit schemes like the one Gilead v Safe Chain exposed.

"Collectors" post to apps like Grindr to find patients they can buy medicine, and sometimes empty bottles, from and sell them to distributors that eventually sell them to unsuspecting pharmacies. They pose as people performing a public service, but they are the first step in a criminal chain that hurts patients.

PSM and ADAP Advocacy issued an alert and a flyer about this issue in 2024.

In progress: A New York City pharmacy allegedly sold counterfeit Biktarvy

Status: ongoing

Docket: 1:25-cv-01469

Gilead Sciences v Heal the World Pharmacy

A complaint filed by Gilead Sciences in March 2025 asks for an injunction to stop Queens, New York-based Heal The World Pharmacy from selling its products because they are allegedly selling counterfeits. The filing says that a patient called Gilead in January because their bottle of Biktarvy—which comes to patients sealed—was short eight tablets. Gilead investigators examined the bottle. It had an old lot number, a fake expiration date, and typographical errors that marked it as counterfeit.

Images from the counterfeit bottle shared in Gilead's complaint:

"Only" should not be capitalized and "Manfacturaded" is a typo.

close up of counterfeit label, Gilead.v Heal the World

Court filings

001: Plaintiff: Complaint and jury demand: March 17, 2025

003: Plaintiff: Proposed temporary restraining order: March 17, 2025

016: Granting of temporary restraining order: March 17, 2025

028: Plaintiff: Memo in support of show cause order: April 7, 2025

033: Defendants: Response to order to show cause: April 9, 2025

035: Plaintiff: Reply to memo in support of show cause order: April 14, 2025

036-1: Plaintiff: Declaration of Timothy Waters, exhibit A (HtW purchase records): April 14, 2025

036-2: Plaintiff: Declaration of Timothy Waters, exhibit B: April 14, 2025

036-3: Plaintiff: Declaration of Timothy Waters, exhibit C: April 14, 2025

036-6: Plaintiff: Motion in Opposition, exhibits: April 18, 2025

037: Defendants: Memo opposing injunction: April 17, 2025

038: Plaintiff: Memo opposing changes to asset freeze: April 18, 2025

047: Status conference hearing transcript: April 28, 2025

053: Defendants: Memo in opposition, with declarations: May 1, 2025

065: Preliminary injunction and seizure order: June 12, 2025

077: Defendants: Response to complaint: July 31, 2025

081: Defendants: Amended answer to complaint: August 7, 2025

090-0: Plaintiff: Memo opposing the amendment of the asset freeze order: September 5, 2025

090-1: Plaintiff: Memo opposing the amendment, exhibit A: September 5, 2025

090-2: Plaintiff: Memo opposing the amendment, exhibit B: September 5, 2025

090-3: Plaintiff: Memo opposing the amendment, exhibit C: September 5, 2025

110: Plaintiff: Motion for case-ending sanctions against the defendants: November 21, 2025

111: Plaintiff: Memo of law supporting sanctions: November 21, 2025

112: Plaintiffs: Declaration of Timothy Waters about March 2025 seizures: November 21, 2025

114: Defendants: Memo in opposition to sanctions: January 18, 2026

115: Defendants: Declaration of Qaiser Chaudhary: January 19, 2026

116: Defendants: Declaration of Nabila Chaudhary: January 19, 2026

117: Defendants: Declaration of Hamza Chaudhary: January 18, 2026

119: Plaintiff: Reply in support of sanctions: February 17, 2026

120: Plaintiff: Declaration of Timothy Waters, and accompanying exhibits in support of sanctions: February 17, 2026

PSM coverage

Public health groups raise alarm about fake HIV medicines in New York

August 12, 2025

Watch PSM's May 2025 video about this case.

Insurers dodging HIV med prices with unregulated, foreign medicine

Recently, employers who sponsor self-funded insurance plans are steering patients into filling high-cost medications from “alternative” sources, including importing them from foreign pharmacies. “Alternative Funding Program” vendors help health plans facilitate these efforts.

In 2024, a HIV patient in Maryland received illegally imported Turkish Biktarvy with no English labeling through a network of companies working with his insurance. His prescription had been refused at his local pharmacies, and shunted without his knowlege to a foriegn supplier. A lawsuit over this practice is now setting significant legal precedents.

Status: ongoing

Docket: 1:24-cv-03566

Gilead Sciences v Meritain Health, et al

Gilead Sciences filed a complaint in December 2024 asking for a preliminary injunction to stop a network of companies they alleged were supplying patients with non-FDA approved, imported versions of Gilead's medicines via alternative funding programs (AFPs) to save their employer-sponsored health plans money. Gilead learned about the importation scheme after a patient who filled his HIV prescription with his health insurance received medicines mailed from a retail pharmacy in Turkey. The initial defendants in this case were:

Meritain Health, a health benefits administrator;
ProAct Inc., a pharmacy benefit manager;
Gregory Santulli, the owner of Rx Valet, an AFP charged with finding the least expensive sources of medicine, and Advanced Pharmacy, a licensed U.S. pharmacy;
Affordable Rx Meds, a broker that contracts with foreign pharmacies; and
Fetih Eczanesi, a Turkish pharmacy.

In June 2025, a federal judge granted Gilead's request for a temporary injunction in an extensive opinion affirming that international sourcing of drugs through AFPs was not legal, and that companies and people facilitating this activity might be liable for it.

In September 2025 Gilead submitted an amended complaint naming CanaRx, ElectRx, ScriptSourcing, and several of their executives as defendants, alleging that they, too, had acted as alternative funding programs for Meritain Health and ProAct. Courts granted Gilead an injunction for these defendants in October 2025.