AHF calls for Gilead's Quad HIV pill to be put on "prior authorization" status

In what may be an unprecedented move on drug pricing and access, advocates from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the USA-based global AIDS organization, are calling on state AIDS and Medicaid directors as well as a number of private medical insurers nationwide asking them to place Gilead Science’s (Nasdaq: GILD)new Quad (elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), a four-in-one, once-daily HIV/AIDS combination tablet - on “prior authorization” status on their respective drug formularies.

14 Democratic members of Congress have also written to Gilead Sciences to ask that the company reasonably price. They maintain that, if Quad is priced between $27,000 and $34,000 per patient, this would represent a 38% premium above Atripla (efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), another Gilead drug that is the most commonly used HIV combination treatment.

In general, prior authorization requires that a particular prescription must be reviewed by a second medical provider for assessment of medical necessity before being filled for a particular drug, and the process may add a day to the timeline of a filling a prescription.