Gilead Offers Free Drugs in Georgia in Hep C Eradication Experiment

Gilead Offers Free Drugs in Georgia in Hep C Eradication Experiment
April 23, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Gilead Sciences, Inc. , with international headquarters in Stockley Park, U.K. and U.S. headquarters in Foster City, Calif., announced Wednesday that it will give away free hepatitis C drugs in the country of Georgia.

The stated goal is to get governments and various related agencies around the world to understand that hepatitis C, caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), could be completely eradicated the same way global efforts have eradicated diseases like smallpox and worked to control AIDS, malaria and polio. As part of the plan, the company is offering two of its HCV drugs, Sovaldi and Harvoni, free to about 7 percent of the adults with HCV in Georgia.

Georgia ranks third as having the highest prevalence of HCV, after Egypt and Mongolia. The country’s population is approximately 5 million, which provides Gilead with a manageable, but sizable number of people to conduct the program with.

“It is a nice country for us to evaluate,” said Gregg Alton, Gilead’s executive vice president of corporate and medical affairs in a statement. “We will take the Georgia data to other countries around the world to really make the case that investment can fundamentally change the disease over time.”

Gilead and its hepatitis C medications have been involved in both controversy over its price and an ongoing price war with competitor AbbVie. In January 2015 Gilead signed a definitive agreement with health insurance company Anthem, Inc. Only two days earlier Gilead had inked an exclusive rights deal with CVS Health Corp. to exclusively sell Harvoni and Sovaldi.

On Dec. 22, 2014, AbbVie signed an exclusive agreement with Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the U.S. Express Scripts would no longer sell Harvoni or Sovaldi, but would exclusively sell AbbVie’s Viekira Pak, for HCV.

Sovaldi treatment runs around $84,000, or about $1,000 per pill. Harvoni’s course of treatment runs 12 weeks and costs around $94,500. Viekira Pak also has a 12-week treatment regimen and runs $83,310.

In poor countries, Gilead has often been forced by local regulators to discount the drugs by as much as 99 percent, or $300 per 28-pill bottle.

Gilead’s plan for Georgia, which is being coordinated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will treat 5,000 patients this year. The company plans a Phase II expansion to reach 20,000 patient yearly.

Gilead has suggested that in order to eradicate HCV, they will need help from other investors, as well as competitors such as AbbVie. “Gilead cannot cure hepatitis C globally on our backs alone,” Alton said in a statement. “There have to be other players that come in and make that investment.”

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