Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMY), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD): Did Someone Just Cure AIDS for $200,000?

This is money — revenue streams — which could be put at risk if an actual cure for the disease is (or has already been) discovered.

Major pharma names such as Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), for example, each generated in excess of $1 billion from HIV-drugs sales in 2010. Indeed, two Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) drugs — Reyataz and Sustiva, combined to produce $2.85 billion that year.

With doctors still insisting that “transplantation is not a viable option for people with HIV on a broad scale because of its costs and complexity”, these revenue streams look safe for the time being. That said, the cases of the two patients, still HIV-free weeks after their transplants, promise a day perhaps not too far off, when this treatable disease does in fact become curable.

As Kevin Robert Frost, chief executive of The Foundation of AIDS Research, opines : “these new cases could lead us to new approaches to treating, and ultimately even eradicating, HIV.”

The article Did Someone Just Cure AIDS for $200,000? originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Rich Smith.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson. The Motley Fool owns shares of Johnson & Johnson.

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