Concern over hepatitis C drug costs only the beginning, health officials say BY MELISSA SANTOS

A new report on the high price of a breakthrough hepatitis C drug affirms what state health care officials have known for some time: That the regimen’s $84,000 price tag limited the number of patients who could access it, while straining the budgets of state Medicaid programs that had to pay for it.

What state officials don’t expect to see is relief from high drug prices in the near future.

According to a U.S. Senate report released this month, when Gilead Sciences introduced its innovative hepatitis C treatment, Sovaldi, two years ago, the company knowingly priced it above what many people could afford to pay.

Read more....

Labels: ,