In
a sign that price competition may take hold for hepatitis C drugs, the
nation’s largest manager of prescriptions will require all patients to
use
AbbVie’s newly approved treatment rather than two widely used medicines from its rival
Gilead Sciences.
The pharmacy benefit manager,
Express Scripts,
said it had negotiated a significant discount from AbbVie in exchange
for making the drugmaker’s treatment, Viekira Pak, the exclusive option
for 25 million people. Express Scripts also said it would allow all
people with hepatitis C to be treated with AbbVie’s drug, not only those
with more serious liver damage.
“We
really believe we want all patients treated,” Dr. Steve Miller, the
chief medical officer of Express Scripts, said in an interview Sunday.
He said that AbbVie had made that affordable by offering “a significant
discount.”