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 The widespread use of a combination of drugs that include Gilead
Sciences Inc's Sovaldi, known generically as sofosbuvir, will
nonetheless be a significant cost for the U.S. healthcare system,
researchers wrote.
Sovaldi's initial $84,000 price drew widespread criticism last year,
and insurers have since pressed Gilead and rival AbbVie Inc to offer
steep discounts on the treatments.
One analysis published on Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine
found treatment involving Sovaldi cost-effective for people with the
most common type of hepatitis C, known as genotype 1, compared with
older treatments.
It was funded by CVS Health, one of the largest U.S. pharmacy
benefits managers, and was based on Gilead's 2014 pricing, before it
began to offer greater discounts.
The new drugs cost $12,825 for every healthy year of life patients
gained over older treatments, the researchers said. That was below
the usual cutoff of $50,000 per healthy year of life gained for
cost-effectiveness.
Senior author Dr. Niteesh Choudhry cautioned that the analysis looks
at benefits over the course of a person's life, while the cost of
treatment is paid upfront.
"We look over the long term and it takes a long time for these
dollars to be incorporated," said Choudhry, of Brigham and Women's
Hospital in Boston.
A second analysis published in the same journal found that treating
all eligible U.S. hepatitis C patients over the next five years, at
2014 prices, would cost an additional $65 billion more than older
and less-effective treatments.
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Based on reduced 2015 prices, the researchers said, the costs would
total an additional $20 billion over the next five years.
Treating the patients with the new drugs would also prevent about
$16 billion in healthcare spending in the future, the researchers
said. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
"These drugs are good value for the money," said lead author
Jagpreet Chhatwal, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer
Center in Houston.
Gilead offers a combination drug known as Harvoni, which combines
Sovaldi and the company's ledipasvir. AbbVie's Viekira Pak, which
was approved in the United States in late 2014, was not evaluated in
either of the analyses.
(Reporting by Andrew M. Seaman; Editing by Dan Grebler)
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