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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez takes credit for fast-tracking HIV drugs, but the deal was actually made 4 years before she was elected: report
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez takes credit for fast-tracking HIV drugs, but the deal was actually made 4 years before she was elected: report

Land of make believe

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) falsely took credit for an agreement to fast-track HIV drugs, according to a new report by the Washington Free Beacon.

What are the details?

Last week, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that she "took on Big Pharma" and helped create an agreement to bring life-saving HIV drugs to the market a year earlier than anticipated.

She posted the tweet in response to President Donald Trump's criticism of House Democrats for their lack of accomplishments in legislation.

"In my first 11 months I've cosponsored 339 pieces of legislation, authored 15, took on Big Pharma w/ my colleagues in hearings that brought PreP generic a year early & exposed abuse of power," she wrote. "In 4 years, you've jailed kids & made corruption the cause celebré. Try to keep up."

According to the Beacon's report, Gilead — which is the pharmaceutical company behind PrEP, an HIV-prevention drug — agreed to allow a generic version of the drug to be released to the market in 2014.

The outlet reported that the pharmaceutical company's patent for the active ingredient in Truvada, which is the company's HIV prevention drug, will expire in 2021 and prohibits the majority of competitors from duplicating the medication. In 2014, however, Gilead and Teva Pharmaceutical reached a legal settlement that authorized Teva to sell the generic form of Truvada beginning in 2020.

Gilead representative Douglas Brooks issued remarks on the move in May, insisting that the legal settlement had nothing to do with the government, and insisted that lawmakers — including Ocasio-Cortez — had nothing to do with the agreement.

You can read more on the background here.

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