Good day, welcome to Gilead's 2020 annual meeting of stockholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel O'Day, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Gilead Sciences. Please go ahead.
Well, good morning, everybody. I'm Dan O'Day, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Gilead Sciences. I'm pleased to welcome you to Gilead's 2020 annual meeting of stockholders. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to support the health and safety of our stockholders, employees, board of directors, and surrounding communities, we are holding this meeting in a virtual-only format instead of an in-person meeting. We have stockholders and participants attending via the virtual meeting portal. Before I call the meeting to order, I'd like to introduce you to some of the members of the Gilead team. Joining me today are members of the board of directors. We have John Cogan, our Lead Independent Director, Jacqueline Barton, Sandra Horning, Kelly Kramer, Kevin Lofton, Harish Manwani, Richard Whitley, Gayle Wilson, and Per Wold-Olsen.
Before we move forward with the additional introductions, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank two longstanding directors who are retiring from the board at this meeting. Lead independent director, John Cogan, has served as a member of our board of directors since 2005. John has provided tremendous contributions during this time, drawing on his broad experience, including as a public servant for the U.S. In particular, his understanding of U.S. budget and fiscal policy, as well as healthcare policy issues, has been critical to Gilead's leadership. John's service to Gilead during a remarkable period of financial and operational growth has been highly valuable to the Gilead board and management, to the company as a whole, and to all stakeholders. Gayle Wilson has served as a member of our board of directors since 2001.
Gayle has contributed in many significant ways to Gilead's success, providing insights that are based on her years of executive leadership and her experience in education, public policy, and science and technology. During Gayle's tenure on the board, Gilead went from its first profitable year to becoming a successful Fortune 100 company with more than 25 marketed products addressing critical medical needs. We are all grateful to Gayle for her 19 years of service and her many contributions. I would also like to acknowledge George Shultz, whose term as director emeritus is ending. George was a member of our board from 1996 to 2005, and subsequently served as director emeritus. Thank you to John, Gayle, and George for their years of valuable service to the board. We wish them all the best for the future. Continuing with introductions, we also have several members of our leadership team here this morning.
Andrew Dickinson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Johanna Mercier, our Chief Commercial Officer, Merdad Parsey, our Chief Medical Officer, Brett Pletcher, our Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and General Counsel, and Amy Flood, our Head of Public Affairs. Also joining us today are Linda Hill and Ray Minehan from Ernst & Young, our independent auditors. It is now shortly after 10:00 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time on May 6, 2020, and this meeting is officially called to order. Brett Pletcher will serve as secretary for this meeting. We will first conduct the formal business of the meeting as described in our proxy statement. After the formal meeting has adjourned, we will provide an overview of Gilead's business activities and address your questions.
The meeting will run in accordance with the agenda and the procedures set forth in the rules of conduct and procedures posted in the virtual meeting portal. The board of directors has appointed Christina Biko of Biko Group to act as Inspector of Election at this meeting. Ms. Biko has taken and subscribed the customary oath of office to execute her duties with strict impartiality. We will file this oath with the records of the meeting. Her function is to determine the qualifications of voters, accept their votes, and when balloting on all matters is completed, to tally the ballots and cast as to each matter. Will the secretary please report on the stockholders' list and the mailing of the meeting notice?
I have a complete list of the stockholders of record of the company's common stock on March 13th, 2020, the record date for this meeting. I also have an affidavit from Broadridge certifying that on March 24th, 2020, a notice of annual meeting of stockholders of the company was disseminated to all stockholders of record on the record date.
Will the secretary please report on the existence of a quorum?
I have been informed by the Inspector of Elections that proxies have been received for 1,086,364,283 shares of the 1,259,015,170 shares of common stock outstanding on the record date, which represents approximately 86.3% of the total number of outstanding shares. This constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business.
I hereby declare this meeting to be duly convened and the polls open for voting and the transaction of all business.
Any stockholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the virtual meeting portal and following the instructions there. Stockholders who have voted prior to the meeting by proxy, telephone, or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action.
In order to expedite the flow of business of this meeting, we intend to adhere to the following order of business. Each of the matters to be acted on by the stockholders today will be presented in the order set forth in the agenda. After presentation of all matters, I will open the floor for questions or comments on those items of business. Questions or comments may only be submitted in the designated field on the virtual meeting portal by stockholders who have logged in with their 16-digit control number. In order to ensure that the business of the meeting proceeds in an orderly fashion, and that stockholders who wish to participate have a fair opportunity to do so, please limit your questions and comments to the items of business listed on the agenda.
The first order of business is the election of eight director nominees named in the proxy statement to serve for the next year and until their successors are elected and qualified. The director nominees are Jacqueline Barton, Sandra Horning, Kelly Kramer, Kevin Lofton, Harish Manwani, Daniel O'Day, Richard Whitley, and Per Wold-Olsen, each a current director of the company. The board of directors has recommended a vote in favor of each of the nominees. The second order of business is the ratification of the selection of Ernst & Young by the audit committee of the board of directors as the independent registered public accounting firm of Gilead for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. The board of directors has recommended a vote in favor of this proposal.
The third item of business is the approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of our named executive officers as presented in the proxy statement. The board of directors has recommended a vote in favor of this proposal. The fourth item of business is consideration of a stockholder proposal requesting that the board adopt a policy that the chairperson of the board of directors be an independent director. The board of directors has recommended a vote against this proposal for the reasons set forth in the proxy statement. The proponent of this stockholder proposal has submitted a prerecorded presentation of this proposal. Operator, please play the recording.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, and fellow shareholders. My name is Kate Monahan, and I represent Friends Fiduciary Corporation to hereby move item number 4, seeking an independent board chair policy for Gilead Sciences, Inc. The 2016 Glass Lewis report on independent board chair found, quote, "That shareholders are better served when the board is led by an independent chairman who we believe is better able to oversee the executives of the company and set a pro-shareholder agenda without the management conflicts that exist when a CEO or other executive also serves as chairman." This, in turn, leads to a more proactive and effective board of directors. Unquote. Additionally, a 2019 PwC survey of more than 700 directors found that 57% of directors who sit on a board with a unified chair and CEO say that under those circumstances it is difficult to voice dissent.
This evidence is often countered by the idea that a lead independent director is as effective as an independent chair. As the EY Center for Board Matters puts it, “They do not command the same authority as a board chair.” When a lead independent director sits on many boards, their focus diminishes. This is why the Council of Institutional Investors, the authoritative voice on governance matters, posits that a, “CEO who also serves as a chair can exert excessive influence on the board and its agenda.” Separating the chair and CEO positions can reduce this unnecessary concentration of oversight. An independent chair remedies certain conflicts by separating the powers of the CEO and the rest of the board.
We believe that this change would encourage a more successful future, not only for Gilead and its employees and shareholders, but for stakeholders of a healthy world. Thank you for your time and attention and for your support for an independent board chair.
This concludes the playback. Thank you. The board's opposition statement for the stockholder proposal has been included in the proxy statement for all stockholders to consider. The fifth item of business is consideration of a stockholder proposal requesting that the board eliminate the ownership threshold for stockholders to request a record date to take action by written consent. The board of directors has recommended a vote against this proposal for the reasons set forth in the proxy statement. John Chevedden will present the proposal. Operator, please open the line for Mr. Chevedden.
Hello, this is John Chevedden. Can you hear me okay?
Yes.
Proposal five, make shareholder written consent a meaningful right. The exact text of this proposal is in the proxy statement. The core of this proposal is that shareholders request that our board of directors take the steps necessary to permit written consent by shareholders entitled to cast the minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize an action at a meeting at which all shareholders entitled to vote thereon were present and voting. Hundreds of major companies enable shareholder action by written consent. This proposal topic won majority shareholder support at 13 large companies in a single year. This included 67% support at both Allstate and Sprint. This proposal topic also won 63% support at Cigna in 2019.
This proposal topic would have received higher votes than 63%-67% at these companies if more shareholders had access to independent proxy voting advice. Each of these outstanding votes applied to a version of written consent that would give shareholders a meaningful right. Gilead shareholders gave majority support in 2018 to a shareholder proposal for a meaningful right to act by written consent. In response to this majority shareholder vote, management came up with a version of written consent that makes no sense. Under our current written consent, it takes $20 billion of Gilead stock to just get management to look at a calendar and assign a date. Why would anyone gather together $21 billion of Gilead stock just to have management look at a calendar, when the same $20 billion of Gilead stock could obligate management to call a special meeting?
Gilead's current written consent is thus inferior to the longstanding shareholder right to call a special meeting. Adoption of this proposal will make shareholder written consent a meaningful right at Gilead and make it no longer a vastly inferior alternative compared to the shareholder right to call a special meeting. Please vote yes. Make shareholder written consent a meaningful right, proposal five.
Thank you, Mr. Chevedden. The board's opposition statement for the stockholder proposal has been included in the proxy statement for all stockholders to consider.
We will now turn to any questions or comments submitted by stockholders through the virtual meeting portal that are related to the items of business listed on the agenda. As a courtesy to the other stockholders present, please limit yourself to one question or comment of reasonable length.
Chairman, we have not received any questions or comments related to any of the proposals.
Thank you. The polls will be closing momentarily. We will pause for a moment here. It is now 10:15 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, and I hereby declare the polls closed. Will the secretary please provide a preliminary report on the voting?
I will now report on the voting of stockholders at this meeting. Each share of common stock is entitled to one vote. The voting was conducted by proxy, written ballot and through our virtual meeting portal. The preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections is as follows. The director nominees named in the proxy statement have been elected with between 91.8% and 99.7% of the shares voting in favor of each nominee. The selection of Ernst & Young LLP by the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors as the independent registered public accounting firm of Gilead for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2020 is ratified with approximately 95.5% of the shares voting in favor. The advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers as presented in the proxy statement is approved with approximately 83.4% of the shares voting in favor.
The stockholder proposal requesting the Board adopt a policy that the Chairman of the Board of Directors be an independent director is not approved with approximately 43.4% of the shares voting in favor. The stockholder proposal requesting the Board eliminate the ownership threshold for stockholders to request a record date to take action by written consent is not approved with approximately 9.4% of the shares voting in favor. The final results of voting will be reported in a Form 10-K within four business days from today.
This concludes the formal portion of our meeting. After adjournment, I will provide an overview of Gilead's business. Following the presentation, we will take questions and comments from stockholders through the virtual meeting portal. This meeting is now adjourned. I am pleased to transition now to an overview of our business. Before I begin our presentation, let me remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements, all of which involve certain assumptions, risks, and uncertainties that are beyond our control and could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. A description of these risks can be found in our latest SEC disclosure documents. All forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Gilead, and Gilead assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.
I'll start with a topic that is front and center for all of us right now, the COVID-19 pandemic and our potential to help with remdesivir. I will share a general update through the framework we introduced at the start of the year, the three pillars that will shape Gilead's future. Like others, we anticipate that the COVID-19 pandemic could have a short-term impact to our company and to the sector as a whole. I'd like to emphasize through this presentation that our core business is strong, durable, and provides a solid foundation to navigate the current environment. Let me start with our broad response to the pandemic. We're humbled to have the opportunity to advance remdesivir as a potential treatment for COVID-19, and I'll talk more about that shortly.
Beyond remdesivir, the three main areas of focus during the pandemic are firstly, meeting our ongoing business commitments. These are challenging to navigate, but I'm very confident in our ability to continue to develop and deliver medicines to our patients. Number two, how can we best support our employees during these challenging times? Number three, finding ways to support our communities and our partners. I'll now turn to remdesivir. This is an extraordinary time for Gilead, given the terrific recent news on remdesivir. We feel the urgency and the sense of responsibility. Our overarching goals are to establish safety and efficacy, expanding manufacturing, and deliver access for appropriate patients as quickly as possible. On safety and efficacy, last week, we saw preliminary data from the phase III NIAID study and from our own open-label phase III SIMPLE study in patients with severe COVID-19.
These data demonstrated that remdesivir shortened the time to recovery and that efficacy was similar with five and 10-day dosing durations. On the manufacturing front, thanks to the great efforts of our team in ramping up manufacturing, our existing supplies amount to approximately 1.5 million doses. Given that we can potentially shorten treatment duration from 10 days to five days for some patients, we can now expect to reach many more patients with that supply. On the access front, more than 2,000 patients have received the drug through our compassionate use and expanded access programs. As previously announced, we have donated our existing supplies for global use. We believe this is the right thing to do in the face of a global pandemic. Going forward, we will develop an approach that is guided by the principles of affordability and access.
At the end of last week, remdesivir was granted emergency use authorization by the FDA. We got our first shipments out this weekend, and the U.S. government is now overseeing delivery to cities with the most urgent need. We expect that other countries will follow soon. Our regulatory teams worldwide are doing a great job of managing those interactions. As remdesivir is authorized or approved by regulatory authorities in various countries, Gilead will focus on making it accessible to government and patients globally. Our progress with remdesivir speaks to our long heritage in antivirals and our commitment to pursuing cutting-edge science to address the world's most challenging health issues. I'd like to acknowledge the remarkable work of our internal teams on bringing this therapy to patients at such a time. Let me shift gears now to provide a brief overview of our business as a whole.
These are the three core pillars that I laid out at the start of the year that will shape our next chapter. I'll emphasize why our core business is so strong and durable. I'll share some highlights of our pipeline, and I'll wrap up by talking about our strategy to expand innovation and growth, working from our core strengths. I'll begin with our strong base business, which has been shaped by our deep antiviral expertise and heritage. Through continuous innovation and despite competition, we've seen robust underlying HIV revenue growth over the past decade. Today, eight out of 10 people living with HIV on therapy in the U.S. are on a Gilead medication.
Biktarvy is the number one prescribed HIV regimen across all patients in the U.S. and is number one in patients who are new to therapy and those who are switching therapy in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. Providers tell us this is it for treatment, and we expect it will remain the preferred treatment option through 2033. In the prevention space, we've already seen significant conversions from Truvada to Descovy for PrEP. Among individuals taking a medicine for PrEP, 38% are now on Descovy. We are confident as we approach near-term challenges associated with the Truvada loss of exclusivity. From the perspective of treatment, we successfully transitioned patients from older TDF-based regimens to more advanced F/TAF regimens, and we expect 90%-95% to be on F/TAF regimens by the fourth quarter of 2020.
On the prevention side, we expect 40%-45% of individuals on PrEP in the U.S. to be on Descovy in the fourth quarter of 2020. We're not stopping there. As we look at long-acting, we want to do it in a way that best meets patients' needs. We presented new clinical data demonstrating the promise of our investigational capsid inhibitor, lenacapavir, in March at CROI. Extensive market research tells us that patients prefer a weekly oral, and that is better for them than a monthly intramuscular injection. The ideal SubQ option would be a six-month interval. Capsid has the potential to meet these needs and is the foundation for our long-acting strategy. These dynamics create a strong foundation and stability for the future. Let me now turn to the opportunities we have in hand today to build upon that.
With the leadership team, I set an immediate strategic imperative of expanding and diversifying our pipeline when I joined early last year. We have a very solid pipeline to take forward, 48 clinical-stage programs, 16 either being registered right now or in label-enabling trials, and four with breakthrough therapy designation. We have a good balance of internal and external focus, and our external focus will increase in the years to come. I'll cover inflammation and oncology now. There's a big unmet medical need in rheumatoid arthritis. Only one in five patients achieve a full remission. Filgotinib offers a balance of both efficacy and safety in rheumatoid arthritis without any compromise. It's currently under regulatory review in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and our highly experienced global and U.S. teams are preparing for a competitive launch.
Filgotinib also has the potential for five new indications to be launched in the next four years. In cancer treatment, our focus is firmly on immuno-oncology, spanning cell therapy and non-cell therapy capabilities in small molecules and biologics. Kite brings pioneering technology that comes with challenges and successes, but we are committed and see it as a long-term platform. Potentially curative therapy with YESCARTA has nearly half of patients still alive at three years, and we're certainly excited about exploring earlier lines and other cell therapy opportunities with the Kite and YESCARTA platform. For instance, FDA accepted Kite's BLA for KTE-X19 for relapsed refractory mantle cell lymphoma during the first quarter of this year, with priority review designation, and the European Medicines Agency validated our application in January. If approved, Kite would be the first company with two cell therapies on the market.
We've been expanding our presence in immuno-oncology through our strategically focused business development. The acquisition of Forty Seven exemplifies our guiding principles and bolsters our strategic focus on expanding our immuno-oncology pipeline and offering potential foundational assets such as magrolimab. As you can see, we have many important upcoming milestones, and I'd like to draw your attention to a few of these. In the first half of this year, we'll have filgotinib phase III ulcerative colitis data that will occur later this quarter. We have the expected approval of filgotinib for rheumatoid arthritis in the United States, Europe, and Japan in the second half of 2020. We remain in close contact with regulators to understand the effect that COVID-19 could have on any of these review timelines.
We have the YESCARTA phase III second-line DLBCL data in the second half of this year. We have the magrolimab phase III interim data in MDS in 2021. The new corporate strategy that we rolled out earlier this year centers around expanding our pipeline and supplementing growth. In terms of corporate development, we are working from a position of strength with a focus on core strategic areas. We have a focus on clinical and commercial assets. There's no need for large M&A, although we have an obligation to look. The bar is high. We expect to see small to transformative partnerships and small to medium bolt-ons as we pursue our corporate development priorities. We entered into a 10-year strategic partnership with Galapagos in July 2019. This was the first major agreement for Gilead after I joined the company.
The Forty Seven acquisition announced in the first quarter is another great example of our strategy in action, bringing a potential first-in-class mechanism for immuno-oncology for forms of blood cancer. Our capital allocation priorities remain the same, which is first, the investment in our internal and external pipeline. Secondly, our commitment to the dividend program. Thirdly, our modest share repurchases in excess of employee equity issuances consistent with recent years. I want to close by saying how proud I am of the way our employees have demonstrated such dedication to meeting the needs of patients, those with COVID-19, and as well as those with conditions including HIV, viral hepatitis, and cancer, who depend on us for their medications. Given the three pillars, along with our leadership team and Gilead's inherent strengths, we are confident in our strong growth story in the mid and long term.
Our next chapter is underway, and we'll look forward to keeping you up to date on the future. Now, we would like to take any stockholder questions and comments submitted through the virtual meeting portal. As a courtesy to the other stockholders present, please limit yourself to one question or a comment of reasonable length. Please note that we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows.
Thank you, Chairman. Our first question is from United Church Funds as follows. Like all Gilead investors and stakeholders, we are concerned with the health, livelihood, and economic fallout of the coronavirus epidemic. We remain hopeful that remdesivir and other efforts the company has underway to combat the epidemic will be tremendously helpful. However, we are clear that pharmaceutical companies play a particularly important part of the eventual recovery, especially when faced with the decision to raise drug prices or not. Now is not the time to exploit the public health fragility by raising drug prices or preventing competition. Mr. O'Day, what steps or what commitment is Gilead taking to ensure that price restraint and no price increases are made across your product portfolio?
Thank you for the question. Let me say that we have been, and we continue to be focused on access of our medicines around the globe. Gilead has had a strong history of both in the developed world, making our medicines accessible to patients around the globe and those that are underprivileged here in the United States and around the world. We will continue to do the right thing. As an example of that, with remdesivir, we've decided to donate the entire existing supply of remdesivir because it's the right thing to do, and it facilitates access in recognition of the public health emergency that's posed by the particular pandemic. This will be available for clinical trials, compassionate use, expanded use, access, and following any potential regulatory authorization. I would just articulate that post-donation, we'll work closely with governments and healthcare systems to provide access.
We're committed to making remdesivir both accessible and affordable to governments and patients around the world. We understand our responsibility at this time of COVID-19 for remdesivir and for our products, and we take that responsibility seriously as we have in the past. We will continue in the future.
Thank you. Chairman, our next question relates to remdesivir price modeling and how well will it create or contribute to revenue and profit?
Thank you for the question. This is somewhat similar to the last question, so I'll just reemphasize that we are firmly committed to providing remdesivir and making it accessible to governments and to patients around the world, which is why we pursued the donation program to begin with. We're in the process now of evaluating the ever-evolving information on the pandemic, including the clinical attributes of remdesivir which have just started to come in, as you know, last week with the NIAID trial and with our own SIMPLE trial. We'll continue to evaluate that data as it progresses during this donation period. We will also be considering the path of the pandemic and how it is evolving, and what role remdesivir can play in it.
We will be discussing with governments and healthcare systems around the world the best way to transition from our donation period of time to one that includes a sustainable model that allows us to produce many more quantities of this medicine for patients around the globe. We're firmly committed to coming up with the right solution, and we will announce that in due course. Thank you.
Our next question is as follows: Mr. Chairman, could you please update us on your plans and expectations for filgotinib in rheumatoid arthritis?
Yes, absolutely. Maybe I'll ask our Chief Medical Officer, Merdad Parsey, to provide a brief clinical update on filgotinib in rheumatoid arthritis. Merdad?
Thanks for the question. We're excited to have filgotinib for rheumatoid arthritis submitted to regulatory bodies. We're currently in the process of engaging with them in terms of progressing towards regulatory approval. We continue to anticipate that regulatory approval will occur in the third quarter of this year. We are in constant contact with them with regard to the data that have been submitted and generated there. Of course, with filgotinib, additional trials and other indications are also anticipated and ongoing, and we'll be updating on the status of those studies as part of the program over time as well.
Thank you, Merdad.
Our next question is what percent of employees currently can do most of their work from home?
Okay, thank you very much for the question. As you know, we have an obligation at Gilead to make sure that our medicine gets in the hands of patients. Therefore, we do have some employees that require to be physically on-site. Early on in the COVID pandemic, across our global sites, we made sure to identify who those employees are that needed to be on-site, then make sure that everyone else, in accordance with public health recommendations associated with the geographic areas in which our employees live and work, followed the recommendations of those public health officials. We have approximately, I would say, around 15% of our employees that are in physically dependent roles, and the vast majority of our employees have been working from home. We have kept up really all the progress in our efforts for patients.
I'm really impressed and amazed at how our employees have been able to accommodate to these changing circumstances, to keep our timeline moving in the right direction, the extraordinary efforts that have gone into remdesivir on top of our normal business. I'm really pleased to say that we continue to drive ahead and to make that difference. Thank you for the question.
Thank you. Our next question is, how much was spent on research and development in 2019, and how much on share buybacks?
Great. I'll turn this question over to Andy Dickinson, our Chief Financial Officer. Andy, over to you.
Hi. Thanks, Dan. Appreciate the question. In 2019, we spent approximately $3.8 billion on R&D, or roughly 17% of revenues, which was in line with other large biopharma companies in our sector. That's on a non-GAAP basis. On a GAAP financial reporting basis, we spent a little over $9 billion, which included the impact of the upfront payment from our Galapagos transaction. As for the second part of the question on share buybacks, we repurchased approximately $1.7 billion of shares last year, which covered the dilution from employee issuances and then a little more beyond that.
Thank you, Andy.
Our next question is addressed to the Chairman. What has impressed you most about Gilead in your first full year as Chief Executive Officer?
Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to comment on that. It's something I very much enjoy talking about. Let me just say, after celebrating my first-year anniversary, that I couldn't be more pleased about my decision to join Gilead. I joined for some very specific reasons. The reasons that connected me to the company were the tremendous science and the hallmark history of breakthroughs. For a company this size to have contributed to society what Gilead has contributed with hepatitis C in terms of a curative therapy, with the evolution of HIV from a terrible death sentence to a chronically managed treatment and now preventable disease. That's the hallmark in science that drew me here and that ranks up there as the first half of what I'm most impressed with the company about. Certainly, that science has spoken since I've been here, in many fronts.
Outside of antivirals, of course, as well in the fields of inflammation and also oncology. Once again, when the world needed Gilead Sciences, it stepped up to the plate with remdesivir. It's important to note out that with remdesivir, this is not something opportunistic that was sitting on the shelf. This was a dedication to antivirals and emerging viruses for decades. remdesivir itself has about a 10-year history, as we would have hoped, only to be ready and prepared for the circulating COVID-19 virus, where we saw initially it being very strong effect in vitro, and then the terrific news from last week showing that that in vitro suppression has carried over and translated into a clinical benefit for patients at the most dire need of this pandemic when they're hospitalized, when they're severe. The ability to get them out of the hospital sooner is an extraordinary benefit.
The beginning, I think, of a variety of therapeutics that we and others may develop to and vaccines that will support us getting out of this pandemic period of time in our history. That science is I've been so impressed with. The second piece of the puzzle was the access, the ability to make sure that that science gets into the hands of patients around the world, whether it's been through the innovative nature of getting HIV medicines to sub-Saharan Africa, to Southeast Asia, to other parts of the world with very creative mechanisms on access, or right here in our home country of the United States, working with underprivileged communities in the South that may not have access to healthcare and working with them through our COMPASS initiatives or the HIV elimination program with the government officials.
All of this is what made me so impressed to join Gilead, and I continue to be impressed. Let me just say that I'm lucky every day to work with the 12,000 talented colleagues at Gilead. They're my inspiration and this is why I'm so impressed to be here. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on that.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes questions and comments relating to the presentation.
Well, thank you very much. On behalf of the board of directors and the management team, I want to thank all of our stockholders for joining us for today's annual meeting. Thank you for your investment in Gilead and your continued support of our mission to bring patients innovative treatments that improve care in areas of unmet medical need. We hope that you, your families, and your colleagues stay safe and healthy. Thank you very much.