The decision by Express Scripts to make the AbbVie hepatitis C treatment the exclusive option for patients with the most common type of the virus caused a ruckus on Wall Street, although the reaction among some doctors and patient advocates was mixed.
Doctors caught in the middle of an escalating battle over U.S. drug prices are losing influence over their patients’ treatment even as they gain an opportunity to treat more people more affordably.
Gilead shares sank after the biggest drug-benefit manager in the U.S. chose a pill from AbbVie to be the sole hepatitis C treatment approved for many patients, as insurers seek to rein in the rising cost of medicine.
The federal lawsuit from Philadelphia’s public transit agency appears to be the first directly challenging the price of Sovaldi, which costs $84,000 overall during a normal 12-week course of treatment in the United States.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, or Septa, has a workforce of around 9,000, with many more covered in a health plan for retirees, and says it has spent $2.4 million on Sovaldi through the first 11 months of the year.
Lately, there has been a lot of of interest over a new drug to cure Hepatitis C—a disease that’s surpassed AIDS in number of death since 2007. Sovaldi, a medication produced by American pharmaceutical company Gilead, has a 90% success rate in treating the disease compared to a 50% success rate of the other existing treatments.
People with health coverage – including those who buy it through government insurance exchanges and Medicare beneficiaries – are likely to pay more out-of-pocket next year for so-called “specialty drugs,” which treat complex conditions, according to two studies from consulting firm Avalere Health.
Healthcare spending represents the single-largest share of the U.S. federal budget in fiscal year 2014—coming in at a whopping trillion dollars.
The first thing Philip Mason noticed was the hair loss. The 73-year-old retiree, a former computer programmer, began shedding hair from his arms, legs, everywhere on his body. “It just all came right off,” he said. After the hair loss came weight loss; Mason dropped from 150 to 125 pounds. He felt weak and sick. Mason, who is blind and already used a white cane to get around, began having falls. He switched to a walker for more stability.
It appears that spending on prescription medicines will continue to defy the laws of gravity, according to a new report from IMS Health Institute for Informatics.