The $1,000 pill for a liver-wasting viral infection that made headlines last year is no longer the favorite of patients and doctors. The new leading pill for hepatitis C is more expensive, and the number of patients seeking a cure has surged.
CalPERS said it spent nearly $40 million for Sovaldi on plans run by Blue Shield of California, Kaiser Permanente and CVS Health.
May 20, 2015 “Prescription drug prices climb into the stratosphere” by Trudy Lieberman, Rural Health News Service Note: Article originally printed in Sterling Journal-Advocate. There’s no getting around it. Americans are using more medications and spending more for them. The latest evidence just came from Express Scripts, the pharmacy benefit manager, which acts as a middleman […]
ICYMI – May 15, 2015 ***** The New England Journal of Medicine: “The $2.6 Billion Pill — Methodologic and Policy Considerations” “Of course, it is extremely expensive and risky to develop a new medication…but as risky as drug development is, the pharmaceutical and biotech industries remain among the most profitable sectors of the U.S. economy and actually […]
Reaction from National Coalition on Health Care President and CEO John Rother on key findings from the “Express Scripts 2014 Drug Trend Report.”
What the study should have asked is whether or not the price Gilead set for the therapy is appropriate for all patients–even asymptomatic patients–and whether or not such a large portion of potential societal value should accrue to one company.
Perhaps no company has done as much as Gilead to propel the issue of high drug prices onto center stage or to lay bare the pharmaceutical industry’s approach to pricing new drugs.
How might state Medicaid programs cope with a new and equally expensive hepatitis C treatment from Gilead Sciences.
In an effort to blunt the high price of hepatitis C treatments, France plans to selectively tax drug makers when the total cost of their medicines exceeds a certain amount each year, according to Reuters. The government says a “progressive contribution scheme” has been designed to ensure all patients can access new and more effective treatments, while […]
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.