Gilead (GILD) has nailed HIV and HCV. It has long striven to build a powerful cancer franchise. Its adventurings in the thicket of cancer therapeutics during the early years of this decade have been painful to watch. Gilead’s 2017 Kite Pharma acquisition marked a break from its earlier efforts; it has its attractions, but is challenging to scale, as I will discuss. Gilead’s flurry of even more recent oncology deals shows a hearty appetite but a questionable palate.

The thesis of this article is that despite Gilead’s longstanding record of successes in so many endeavors, it has fallen well short of the mark in terms of building a commercially attractive cancer portfolio. This has not been for lack of effort, as I will show.

This article does not discuss Gilead’s 9/13/20 Immunomedics (IMMU) deal, which has strong coverage in several recent Seeking Alpha articles. It should, however, serve as a