Prisons balk at Sovaldi’s $84,000 cost for hepatitis C treatment

In San Francisco’s jails, no inmates with hepatitis C are receiving Sovaldi, the breakthrough pill that can cure most patients in an unprecedented amount of time.

In California’s prisons, the drug, made by Gilead Sciences of Foster City, is being given to less than 1 percent of the 17,000 inmates with the virus.

A Stanford University-led study published Tuesday argues that Sovaldi, which hit the market in December 2013, is the most cost-effective therapy for inmates because it can deliver significant health benefits in the long run.

Read more...

Labels: , , ,