US Senate report says Gilead puts profit maximization above the interests of hepatitis C patients

Source: Ding Xiangyuan 2015-12-04 in the latest move for the high pricing of heavy drugs in the United States, the Senate Finance Committee conducted an 18 month investigation on Gilead sovaldi and the follow-up compound drug harvoni, and the Committee accused Gilead of maximizing the benefits over the patients' drug access The survey found that there are more than 700000 state Medicaid programs for poor patients with hepatitis C, the vast majority of whom are still waiting for treatment "Maximizing revenue has always been Gilead's plan, and affordability and accessibility are hindsight," said Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon who announced the findings at a press conference with Republican Senator Grassley of Iowa The two senators said that the prices of sovaldi and harvoni did not reflect their development costs or Gilead's $11 billion payment to pharmaset to obtain the drugs, but were purely a desire to maximize profits Sovaldi's catalog costs $84000 per course, or $1000 per pill, and there has been a fury about the price The cure rate of previous drugs is much lower, and there are many annoying side effects Gilead's drugs represent a huge improvement compared with these drugs While older drugs are also more expensive, they do not place a similar burden on the health budget, although thousands of patients delay treatment and wait for improved new drugs with a promise of cure "If Gilead's pricing method is the one favored by future blockbuster drugs, it will cost billions of dollars to treat only a small number of patients," said Wyden, a senior member of the Finance Committee For example, the report says the Indiana Medicaid program spent $40 million on 462 people The survey found that in 2014 alone, Medicare and Medicaid spent more than $5 billion (before discounts) on sovaldi and harvoni Gillid said in a statement that the company strongly disagreed with the report's conclusions "Through rebates and appropriate discounts, the current price is lower than the cost of previous programs," the company said, noting that its treatment drugs reduce the long-term costs associated with managing chronic hepatitis C, such as preventing liver failure or transplant demand The high price of prescription drugs in the United States has become a major issue in the presidential campaign in November 2016, with Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley calling for changes to limit patient spending "If the United States is going to be able to cure Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes and HIV in the next few years, these drugs can't afford to pay more than most Americans," Wyden said Some of the latest cancer drugs cost $150000 or more a year.