A newly approved drug that could possibly save patients from developing liver cancer has been revealed to cost $1,000 a day, UPI reported.
Sovaldi, a new generation of hepatitis C therapy, has been manufactured by Gilead Sciences Inc. and could total $5 billion in 2014 if current prescription patterns hold.
The drug can help in curing some 90 percent of targeted patients who might otherwise develop liver cancer. With analysts claiming the U.S. sales of Sovaldi to be reaching $9 billion, health insurance companies are certain that the drug will hurt their bottom lines.
The 10 largest publicly traded insurers could have to pay $798 million more than they did in 2013 for hepatitis C treatments, Peter Costa, an analyst for Wells Fargo Securities estimated.
"Since Sovaldi costs $84,000 for its 12-week treatment -- there are an estimated 3.2 million U.S. adults with hepatitis C -- and any medications from competing drug companies are a year off, some insurers are trying to reserve the drug for the sickest patients and are asking states to take on more of the cost for Medicaid patients," UPI reported.
Some, however, are "focused on the per-pill cost or per-bottle cost, but that is really not relevant here. It's how much it costs to cure your patient," Gregg Alton, Gilead's executive vice president of corporate and medical affairs, said.
More than $175,000 was required to be paid by hepatitis C patients who required liver transplants or had developed liver cancer.
Rival pharmaceutical companies creating rival drugs have been requested to lower potential pricing by Express Scripts officials, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Even doctors have been asked to delay their treatments for hepatitis C patients until the approval and arrival of the rival drugs next year.
Until the pricing of the medication doesn't go down, patients are being expected to wait, UPI reported.
