[SFGate] At $1,000 a pill, Sovaldi will bankrupt us

08-3-2014 Media

How much can we afford to pay for one drug? How much profit does one company deserve for producing that drug? With last month’s release of record earnings for Gilead Sciences – nearly $6 billion in profits in half a year from the hepatitis C drug, Sovaldi, these questions need to be answered.

[SFGate] Gilead hepatitis C pill reaches $3.48 billion in quarterly sales

07-23-2014 Media

“The fundamental concern is Sovaldi and other speciality drugs are going to put an unsustainable burden on the health insurance system,” said John Rother, CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care, which lobbies for health-system reform. In a poll it conducted this month of 2,000 people, nearly 60 percent said they were concerned about […]

[The New York Times] $300,000 Drug

07-18-2014 Media

There is one other way that Kalydeco is an excellent example of personalized medicine: its cost. It’s more than $300,000 a year. Because patients will likely be taking the drug for the rest of their lives, it could cost millions of dollars to keep just one patient on Kalydeco. That raises another important question about […]

[USA Today] Why $1,000 a pill? Our view

07-17-2014 Media

In the good-news/bad-news world of blockbuster drugs, the latest is the launch of Sovaldi, a drug to treat hepatitis C. Sovaldi comes with a cure rate as high as 90% for a disease that afflicts 3 million people in the United States, and with fewer complications than previous treatments. But it also comes with a […]

[The Washington Post] How do you pay for a drug that costs $84,000?

07-15-2014 Media

“As longtime health-care advocate John Rother sees it, the Sovaldi issue is a turning point for the health-care system, making it confront the biggest questions: how we pay for drugs, how public health prioritizes treatments, how insurance is designed to make these drugs affordable for patients, and, ultimately, our societal obligation to ensure access to […]

[The Hill] Poll: 4 in 5 say $1,000-a-pill drug cost ‘unacceptable’

07-15-2014 Media

Eighty-two percent in a new poll say the cost of a $1,000-a-pill medicine which has sparked congressional scrutiny is “unacceptable” and expressed concerns the specialty drug could harm innovation in the pharmaceutical industry.

[The Hill] Wyden, Grassley question hep C drug’s high cost

07-11-2014 Media

Two high-ranking senators have lent their voices to the chorus demanding to know why Gilead’s new hepatitis C drug Sovaldi costs $1,000 a pill. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, are asking the specialty drugmaker how they justify the high price of […]

[The Health Care Blog] The Coming Debate Over Specialty Drugs

07-2-2014 Media

The debate over the price of specialty drugs is intensifying and could well be the next major healthcare issue to dominate the national, even international, agenda. In a nutshell, how will society pay for breakthrough scientific innovation? Specialty drugs, complex therapies used to treat severe illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and Hepatitis C, are […]

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