Lawsuit alleges AFP imported unsafe HIV drugs from Turkey through gray market supply chains

In November 2025, CNBC released the results of its investigation into “alternative funding programs” (AFPs), increasingly popular services where employer-sponsored health plans obtain drugs from overseas. 

Since releasing its report, Gilead Sciences has filed a lawsuit against AFP companies, alleging they used backdoor supply chains to obtain HIV drugs for clients. The drugs in this case were manufactured by Gilead and meant to be supplied to Turkey. 

According to CNBC, which has reviewed the lawsuit, Gilead alleges that the way AFPs are acquiring these HIV drugs on the gray market is unsafe—a sentiment echoed by a coalition of patient advocacy groups who have filed an amicus brief with the court, asking a federal judge to end third-party pharmaceutical distribution when it involves importing substances from overseas. 

As the groups note, the regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) do not apply to any substances obtained abroad. 

The coalition is led by the nonprofit HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, which filed a statement of advocacy with the court on Dec. 26. In the letter, the group and its coalition of supporters emphasized that employee lives are put at risk when AFP arrangements are thrust upon them as the only way to get access to affordable, life-saving medications. 

“Forcing a person who has employer-sponsored health insurance to sign up with an unknown third-party vendor to receive their life-saving drug supplied by a foreign country not only is illegal but jeopardizes the health and safety of patients,” Carl Schmid, Executive Director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, said in a press release. “In an effort to evade actual coverage of specific prescription drugs that the health insurance plan states it covers, middlemen are profiting by scheming to set up so-called ‘alternative funding programs.’” 

“While federal regulators should be shutting them down, in the meantime, the courts must step in to protect patients,” he added. 

One of the defendants in the lawsuit is Rx Valet, the AFP responsible for importing drugs from Turkey. In a statement to CNBC, Greg Santulli, the CEO of the Georgia-based company, said that he was confident the medications were safe, noting that Turkey is a “modern, sophisticated country” with secure supply chains for medications. 

The lawsuit from Gilead is still making its way through the courts. 

For more, read CNBC’s full story at the link below.