Gilead authorized seven Indian imitators to produce sovaldi generic drugs

Source: Biovalley announced on Monday that it has reached cooperation agreements with a number of generic drug manufacturers to produce generic drugs and another experimental drug of hepatitis C star sovaldi, which are sold to 91 developing countries Sovaldi is Gilead's real money printer, with sales of $5.8 billion in the first half of 2014 Sovaldi was listed in the United States in December 2013, and has become the focus of the industry since its birth The pricing of its $84000 / course (1000 / tablet) has also been controversial The U.S House of Representatives, patient rights groups and other organizations have strongly called for sovaldi to reduce prices, while Gilead insisted that the drug would save taxpayers a lot of money in the long run In the United States, there are about 3-4 million patients with hepatitis C Before sovaldi went on the market, the clinical standard treatment of hepatitis C required up to 12 pills a day and interferon injection The clinical cure rate of the standard treatment was only about 75%, and it could cause serious side effects similar to influenza symptoms However, sovaldi has fewer side effects, and the cure rate is as high as 80-90% Therefore, it has gained the favor of clinicians as soon as it is put on the market In August, Gilead told the times of India that he would sell sovaldi in India for 1% of the price, i.e US $900 / course, with a discount of 99%, which was strongly criticized by American critics But gillid said the pricing was based on pricing strategies in the face of low-income countries But the industry believes that Gilead's move is more or more out of frustration with India's intellectual property environment If the Indian government exercises the compulsory imitation license, Gilead not only loses its direct sales in India, but also risks losing its sovaldi patent Regarding the sofaldi imitation cooperation agreement, Gilead did not disclose the price of sofaldi generic drugs in developing countries, but said that in the countries covered by the agreement, the total number of hepatitis C patients exceeded 100 million, more than half of the total number of hepatitis C patients in the world Gilead said the agreement with generic drug manufacturers is crucial to the promotion of Gilead's humanitarian projects in these developing countries Seven Indian generic companies are on the list, including mylan, Ranbaxy and Cadila healthcare Mylan said the deal would allow its subsidiaries to produce generic drugs for sovaldi and would help address the medical needs of millions of patients The companies will pay Geely royalties based on sales and Geely will transfer sovaldi production technology to help it start production quickly The cooperation agreement also includes another hepatitis C compound drug of Gilead, composed of sovaldi and another antiviral drug, ledipasvir, which is currently under review by FDA and EMA.