Hepatitis C drugs drive a surge in drug costs in the United States

Source: Ding Xiangyuan 2015-03-12 according to the data of express scripts, in 2014, 13.1% of the growth of prescription drugs in the U.S region came from very effective but expensive new hepatitis C drugs, which is also the fastest growth in the past decade Express scripts, the largest drug benefit and pharmaceutical service manager in the United States, serves many industry-leading employers and frequently warns of runaway price growth for new drugs entering the market in the near future According to the 2014 drug trend report released on October 10, the cost of specialty drugs, including drugs for diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and hepatitis C, exceeded 31% of last year's drug expenditure Stettin, senior vice president of clinical research and new solutions for express scripts, said in a statement, "in the past few years, the annual growth rate of drug expenditure has been lower than the annual growth rate of inflation in the overall healthcare market in the United States, but this pattern is changing significantly due to the unprecedented and unsustainable growth rate of drugs." According to the report of express scripts, the cost of hepatitis C drugs in the United States in 2014 was 743% of that in 2013 According to the report, the growth mainly came from the new drugs harvoni and sovaldi of Gilead and the viekira Pak of Aberdeen The company added that upcoming innovative drugs, including a range of new drugs that enhance the immune system's ability to fight cancer, and so-called PCSK9 inhibitors that treat high cholesterol, will continue to challenge U.S healthcare providers