Price of Hepatitis C Drug Sovaldi Is ‘Astronomical,’ Health Insurers Say

The $1,000 per-pill price tag on Gilead’s breakthrough Hepatitis C specialty drug Sovaldi is extremely expensive and unsustainable, according to a leading trade group of U.S. health insurers.

While the drug has shown tremendous results, the company has taken advantage of a lack of competition and “priced it at an astronomical level that is not sustainable for consumers, innovation, or society,” says America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) says in a May 20 blog posting.

The trade group notes that a one, 12-week course of Sovaldi runs $84,000, and it’s typically prescribed along with other treatments that can boost the cost to $150,000. “These costs are crushing consumers, taxpayers, and government budgets across the country,” AHIP said.

In its first quarter on the market, Sovaldi rang up sales of more than $2 billion. The drug has shown to cure more than 90 percent of patients in 12 weeks or less with few side effects.

Gilead spokeswoman Cara Miller defended the pricing and said the upfront fee of $84,000 is “priced such that the total regimen cost is equal to that of prior standard of care regimes,” according to a May 20 Reuters story. Sovaldi reduces total treatment costs for hepatitis C, taking into account the cost of medications (including those for side effects or complications) and healthcare visits, she added. Furthermore, it represents a finite cure, Miller said, “an important point to consider when comparing the price of a pill or bottle to the lifetime costs of treating a chronic disease."

AHIP’s comments are just the latest salvo in the debate over the high costs of specialty pharmaceuticals.

“More and more specialty drugs and other high cost prescriptions are coming into the marketplace that hold tremendous potential for patients, but are being priced in a way that threatens Americans’ access to them,” the blog post said. “Before we reach a tipping point, we need to find a solution that ensures important drugs like Sovaldi are priced at sustainable levels so that we can foster even more life-saving innovation.” — Harry Morrison

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