The pricing battle pitting insurers and pharmacy benefit managers against drugmakers over a new breed of high-priced and highly effective treatments for hepatitis C may be a preview of tougher negotiations for coverage of other blockbuster drugs.

The White House said Monday that it is “deeply concerned with the rapidly growing prices of specialty and brand name drugs,” a victory for critics of pharmaceutical companies.

Abbvie, the maker of one of the costly hepatitis C pills captivating Wall Street and frustrating those who pick up the tab for health care costs, says its sales of its treatment will generate more than $3 billion in annual sales in 2015.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, one of the largest not-for-profit health insurers in New England, said it will save millions of dollars in hepatitis C drug costs through its negotiated pricing discount from pharmaceutical giant Gilead.

The past year has seen an epic confrontation pitting insurers and payers against drug companies.

Express Scripts, which this year forced price concessions from makers of $1,000-a-day hepatitis C medicines, has set its sights on $37 billion in U.S. spending on cancer medications.

There is little question that rising prices for medicines – including many cancer treatments – is a flashpoint in the growing controversy over health care costs.

Just weeks into a new drug treatment for hepatitis C, Travis Poole felt like getting out of bed and going back to work as a painting contractor. “I had new energy; I didn’t tire as easily,” he said. “My whole world did a 180, from knowing I was dying to knowing I had a new […]

As the year came to a close, many employers were reviewing 2014 expenses to help plan spending for the new year.

After drug pricing concerns weighed on Gilead Sciences’ stock toward the end of December, the drugmaker has kicked off 2015 the same way it did the previous two years: by increasing prices on several products.