[Reuters] New cancer therapy comes of age, cost a ‘toxic’ side effect

A raft of new cancer drugs promise better, longer-lasting treatments with fewer adverse side effects -- but their high cost is a growing concern. Read More

[The Washington Examiner] America’s other drug war

Winston Churchill famously described an appeaser as "one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." Today, in a very different context, his remark captures the plight of the American pharmaceutical industry. Read More

[The Washington Post] The new $84,000 hepatitis C treatment is losing momentum, for now

After recording the best launch of any drug in history, it looks like the pace is starting to slow down for Gilead Sciences' Sovaldi — the new $84,000 hepatitis C cure that's sparking a new focus on specialty drug costs. Read More

AHF Joins National Coalition on Health Care’s ‘Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing’

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization and an outspoken advocate against runaway drug pricing for lifesaving HIV/AIDS and other medications, has teamed with the National Coalition on Health Care and others on the ‘Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing’ to spotlight what the group characterizes as “unsustainable and abusive” prices for some medicines. Read More

Gilead–The Predictable Path or the Road Less Traveled?

Gilead should be commended for taking action to make their best-selling treatment for Hepatitis C, Sovaldi, available to more people around the world. In India, they’ve struck licensing agreements with generic firms to produce the product for pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, Gilead’s largess is being funded largely on the backs of American families. Read More

[Reuters] Study shows downward trend in Sovaldi utilization

Over the last several months there has been a 'plateau and downward trend' in the use of Gilead Sciences Inc's controversial $1,000-a-pill hepatitis C treatment, Sovaldi, a CVS Health Corp analysis showed. Read More

[The New York Times] Gilead, Maker of Hepatitis C Drug, Strikes Deal on Generics for Poor Countries

Gilead announced that it had struck agreements with seven Indian generic drug makers to sell lower-cost versions of its $1,000-a-pill Hepatitis C drug in poorer countries. The deals are intended to provide greater access to the medicine Sovaldi for most of the nearly 180 million infected worldwide with Hepatitis C who do not live in rich countries. Some 350,000 people die every year of Hepatitis C infections, most of them in middle- and low-income nations. Read More

[The Street] Retrophin Assailed for ‘Exorbitant’ Price Hike

Runaway drug pricing has become a recent hot topic, witnessed best by the media and political bashing of Gilead Sciences (GILD_) for the $1,000-per-day cost of its hepatitis C pill Sovaldi. Read More

[The Boston Globe] New Genzyme drug comes at a high price

There are a lot of innovative therapies with encouraging prospects and eye-popping price tags in the news lately. All of them pose hard questions about the big commercial risks drug companies must take and the enormous pricing power of medicines that can help suffering patients. Read More

[Des Moines Register] State paying for pricey pill to treat Hepatitis C

The state of Iowa has started paying $1,000 per pill for a new drug targeting hepatitis C, but officials don't plan to buy the medication for every person who carries the virus and qualifies for public health care. Read More

[Bloomberg] Gilead Close to Sending $84,000 Drug to Poor Countries

Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) is close to a pact with generic drugmakers to bring low-cost versions of its $84,000 hepatitis C drug Sovaldi to about 80 developing countries including India,Indonesia, and Pakistan. Read More

[WSJ] UK Recommends Covering Sovaldi Hepatitis C Pill

The U.K. agency that evaluates the cost effectiveness of prescription drugs has recommended the government pay for the controversial Sovaldi hepatitis C treatment, although not for all patients. Read More