Government action needed to slash prices for hepatitis C treatments, says US advocacy

The US federal government should act to dramatically lower the cost of new and prohibitively pricey medications to treat hepatitis C (HCV), consumer advocacy Public Citizen president Robert Weissman told lawmakers earlier this week.

Mr Weissman testified before the US Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, explaining how the extraordinary cost of new treatments, including Gilead Sciences’ (Nasdaq: GILD) antiviral Sovaldi (sofosbuvir), is leading to rationing.

“The present approach whereby we are at the mercy of Gilead’s monopoly control over sofosbuvir – a government-granted monopoly, at that – is morally unacceptable, because it requires the needless rationing of an important medical therapy,” he said.

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