Gilead has met resistance from civil society groups in some countries when trying to patent the combination drug, and in particular in Argentina and Brazil, where civil society has filed patent oppositions. In Argentina, Gilead withdrew its patent application, while in Brazil, according to sources, the global pharmaceutical company might push its case to courts.

According to New York Times, the shortage of medicines generated by the crisis and the cutback in public health policies resulted in a jump in the number of indigenous people killed due to AIDS, a disease caused by the HIV virus. After the other villagers had drifted away to do chores, Rafael Pequeño finally found himself alone with the headman and opened the hardcover notebook on his lap. The men were sitting in a palm-thatched hut perched on stilts on the edge of a branch of the Orinoco River.

The Working Group on Intellectual Property of the Brazilian Network for Integration of Peoples (GTPI/Rebrip), a coalition of civil society organizations and activists coordinated by the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Aids Association (ABIA), filed several patent oppositions in this case.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (MEDT) refused to grant the pharmaceutical company Gilead a patent for hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir. On 2 March 2018, the MEDT issued the order (No. 305) which approved the decision to reject the patent application. If issued, a patent could give the company a 20-year monopoly on the import of sofosbuvir to Ukraine.