Report: US state governments may spend $55 billion on hepatitis C drugs

17 July 2014
washingtondc

State legislatures in the USA will need to find billions in their budgets to purchase costly new hepatitis C therapy, according to a new state-by-state analysis released today by Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX).

More than 750,000 Americans with chronic hepatitis C receive state-funded health care through Medicaid or the prison system. Given the pricing that drug manufacturers are currently offering to these public programs, Express Scripts projects states will spend more than $55.2 billion if they are to provide all of these patients the latest therapy regimen of Sovaldi (sofosbuvir from Gilead Sciences [Nasdaq: GILD]) and ribavirin.

No doubt Sovaldi is a breakthrough, but may “break state budgets”

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