{"id":48690,"date":"2014-08-13T23:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T03:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=48690"},"modified":"2014-08-13T23:39:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-14T03:39:17","slug":"shame-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/08\/13\/shame-6\/","title":{"rendered":"shame…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How Much? Gilead Will Charge $900 for Sovaldi in India<\/a><\/div>\n
Pharmalot: WSJ<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n
By Ed Silverman<\/div>\n
Aug 7, 2014<\/div>\n

India has become the latest country where the Sovaldi hepatitis C treatment will be offered for $900 per patient. The move, which was reported by The Times of India<\/a>, comes a few weeks after the manufacturer, Gilead Sciences GILD<\/span> +0.66%<\/span><\/span>, is making the medication available for the same price in Egypt. The pricing reflects an effort by Gilead to forestall the sort of criticism the pharmaceutical industry has often encountered when selling life-saving medicines in poorer countries, which have often complained bitterly that many of its citizens have been unable to afford some treatments. An advocacy group last year formally opposed a patent for Sovaldi in India, claiming the treatment is based on “old science” and, therefore, does not deserve patent protection. An Indian generic drug maker made a similar point recently in asking Indian officials to deny the patent. If they prevail, generic alternatives could become available at low prices.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

The U.S. price tag has prompted objections from insurers, state Medicaid programs and politicians, among others, who complain the cost for Sovaldi will bust budgets as more hepatitis C sufferers are diagnosed and seek treatment. Gilead and its supporters say this argument is, effectively, short sighted by noting that Sovaldi can cure nine of 10 patients, many of whom would require more expensive treatment over a protracted period. In other words, society saves money in the long run…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
There is nothing that Gilead will ever do or say that will justify the US price tag on Sovaldi®. And they’re not alone. AbbVie’s Humira®<\/font><\/strong> is another example of similar price gouging. The Atypical Antipsychotics and many new cancer drugs are in the same class. These PHARMA Companies are using the patent laws not for their intended purpose. There’s no "free market enterprise" or "supply and demand" in these enterprises. It’s simply a predatory monopoly feeding on a captive audience – and in the case of Sovaldi®<\/font><\/strong>, a captive audience with lives on the line. After decades of jury-rigged clinical trials and false advertising campaigns, when PHARMA finally comes up with something that might actually work as advertised, they feel entitled to break the bank. Shame on them…<\/div>\n
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How Much? Gilead Will Charge $900 for Sovaldi in India Pharmalot: WSJ By Ed Silverman Aug 7, 2014 India has become the latest country where the Sovaldi hepatitis C treatment will be offered for $900 per patient. The move, which was reported by The Times of India, comes a few weeks after the manufacturer, Gilead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48690"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48699,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48690\/revisions\/48699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}