Pharmalot: WSJBy Ed SilvermanAug 14, 2014The 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. The move, which still requires a final endorsement, comes as the medicine causes a ruckus in the U.S. The price tag – $84,000 for a 12-week regimen – has insurers and state Medicaid directors worried that the Gilead Sciences medication will become a budget buster and helped to fuel a national debate over the rising cost of prescription drugs.
Generally, the U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence causes a ruckus of its own by declining to recommend coverage for medications. Consequently, the agency has often butted heads with drug makers and patient groups over its decisions. Last week, for instance, NICE and Roche battled over the cost of a cancer drug, although in a rare development, patient groups sided with the agency. NICE, in fact, sent mixed signals two months ago about its Sovaldi decision. The agency asked Gilead to supply additional data about certain patient populations and maintained there were “substantial uncertainties in the evidence” that the drug maker provided to win a coverage recommendation. The request for more data prompted speculation that NICE may not recommend coverage.
After reviewing the data, though, NICE agrees that Sovaldi is an effective improvement over existing treatments. The Gilead drug, by the way, can cure nine of 10 patients. The decision was likely helped by the lower price tag in the U.K. Gilead is selling its drug for about $56,000, according to a NICE spokesman. “It’s a lot cheaper here,” he tells us. The agency is recommending Sovaldi, plus interferon and ribavirin, for adults with genotype 1, which is the most common form of hepatitis C, and accounts for 46% of all cases in the U.K., a NICE spokesman says. The recommendation also extends to patients with genotype 3, which accounts for 43% of hepatitis C sufferers…
Pharmalot: WSJBy Ed SilvermanAug 7, 2014
“We have set three basic pricing tiers [based on a country’s per capita income and hepatitis C prevalence] that serve as the starting point for negotiations with national governments. The tiers are low-income, low middle-income and upper-middle income,” Gregg Alton, a Gilead executive vice president for corporate and medical affairs, tells the paper. Such decisions, however, have further fed a controversy in the U.S., where Sovaldi costs $84,000 for the same 12-week regimen and has become a proxy for a growing national debate over the rising cost of prescription drugs…
Boston Tea Party, 1773
I think that there are a lot of drugs which cost more in rich countries than in poor ones. There are even economists who argue that countries like the US should cover more of the cost.
I mean the US per capita GDP is something like $52k/year. India’s is closer to 1500. That makes the Indian price roughly $32,000 per year. That would still be a lot cheaper than in the US, but my point is that $900 is still a lot of money for people in India.