In a suit by 24,000 AIDS patients, a state appeals court says pharmaceutical giant Gilead Life Sciences can be held responsible for delaying release of a drug for years while it marketed another product that it knew had potentially harmful side effects.

Even though the drug it continued selling for nearly a decade was effective against AIDS and the HIV virus, the company can be held to account “if the reason was solely to maximize Gilead’s profits,” said the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. It was the first ruling by a California appellate court allowing a manufacturer to be held responsible for a medication that worked to prevent a disease but could cause other harms.

Otherwise, Justice Jeremy Goldman wrote in Tuesday’s 3-0 decision, a manufacturer could legally “extend the time patients are subjected to the risks associated with a more dangerous drug precisely because delaying the commercialization of a safer alternative would confer a financial benefit” on the company.