Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Hepatitis C drug Sovaldi is priced $1000 per pill, $84,000 per Course!

The U.S. lawmakers have inquired Gilead Chief Executive John C. Martin about the high cost of its new Hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, which is priced $1000 per pill, $84,000 per course!

Gilead Sciences, a biotechnology company has manufactured a new drug called “Sovaldi” for Hepatitis C. According to the company, the drug will cost $1000 per pill, so the amount of pills required for a complete course of treatment will charge you $84,000. As per the estimation of World Wide Organization, about 150 million people are suffering with this disease worldwide.

U.S. lawmakers asked for Hepatitis C new drug Sovaldi

The three U.S. lawmakers Henry Waxman, Frank Pollone and Diana DeGette sent a letter to the company Gilead Sciences, Foster City, Calif. In the letter, they asked Gilead to clarify the reason for selling its new drug Sovaldi at very high cost. They also stated in the letter that although the drug can be very much effective, it will not cure patients if they cannot afford it.




The health experts stated that the previous therapies for disease, hepatitis C helped only about half of patients and also had several side effects like anemia, depression and influenza. The experiments of Sovaldi have resulted in 90% cure rate with very less complaints as compared to prior treatment.

Around 3 million people are suffering from Chronic hepatitis C in the United States only, which can frequently start asymptomatic and thus goes undiagnosed. If it is left untreated, it can result in fatal damage to the liver or death.

The company has offered multi-tiered pricing system for Sovaldi drug. The pricing depends on the country’s per capita gross income in which it is sold, such as in United Kingdom, it costs $57,000 and in Germany, it costs $66,000 for the course. In the case of Egypt, the company agreed to make available the drug for $900 only as it has the world’s highest rates of Hepatitis C infection.

Image source: nytimes.com

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