July 11, 2014—The Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic chairman and a senior Republican member want Gilead Sciences to justify the $1,000-a-day price of its hepatitis C virus drug Sovaldi.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″]
In a July 11 joint letter, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said that, “given the impact Sovaldi’s cost will have on Medicare, Medicaid and other federal spending, we need a better understanding of how your company arrived at the price for this drug.”
“While a standard course of treatment for Sovaldi has been widely reported to cost $84,000 in the United States, Gilead will offer the drug in other countries for a fraction of the price,” they noted. “In Egypt, for example, Sovaldi could be offered for as low as $900 per course of treatment – a 99 percent discount of the price in the U.S.”
“In order for a marketplace to function properly, it must be competitive, fair, and transparent,” they continued. “It is unclear how Gilead set the price for Sovaldi. That price appears to be higher than expected given the costs of development and production and the steep discounts offered in other countries. An efficient market needs informed consumers to keep costs down.”
Senators Wyden and Grassley said Sovaldi’s cost could dramatically increase federal spending in Medicare and other programs, including health care for prisoners with hepatitis C. “American taxpayers could end up paying billions of dollars buying Sovaldi to treat inmates,” they wrote.[/ms-protect-content]