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.

Learn how unsafe HIV medicines have been distributed:

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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.