d******8
发帖数: 1972 | 1 http://www.thestreet.com/story/12992120/1/abbvies-hep-c-regimen
Abbvie's Hep C Regimen Approved, Marketing Battle With Gilead Up Next
By: Adam Feuerstein Follow | 12/19/14 - 04:16 PM EST
inShare
Comment
Link
Stocks in this article: GILDABBVENTA
U.S. regulators approved a new hepatitis C therapy from Abbvie (ABBV) ,
heralding a new era of market competition with Gilead Sciences (GILD) .
The just-approved Abbvie hepatitis C regimen will be sold in the U.S. under
brand name Viekira Pak. The company has not yet announced a price for
Viekira Pak, but it will compete with Gilead's Harvoni at a price of $94,500
for 12 weeks of treatment or $63,000 for eight weeks. Both competing
regimens cure between 94% and 99% of hepatitis C patients.
Most patients treated with Viekira Pak will swallow three pills in the
morning and one pill at night. Some patients with more advanced liver damage
due to hepatitis C will require an extra medicine, ribavirin, which adds
two more pills to the Abbvie therapy. By comparison, patients treated with
Gilead's Harvoni take a single pill each morning.
Whether the convenience advantage of Gilead's Harvoni over Abbvie's Vieikira
Pak matters in the market remains to be seen. The more likely battle will
be waged over price and access to hepatitis C patients. Insurance companies
have been very vocal about large numbers of hepatitis C patients seeking
treatment swamping healthcare spending budgets. Some insurers are already
trying to control the use of the new hepatitis C drugs by placing limits on
reimbursements based on disease severity. With two competing therapies now
on the market, some insurers and pharmacy benefit managers may try to force
Gilead and Abbvie into granting price concessions in order to remain on
formulary.
Approximately 3.2 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C, according
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gilead's Harvoni received U.S. approval in October. Through the first nine
months of the year, Gilead reported $8.5 billion in sales of its first
hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, all but about $1 billion of that amount in the U.S.
Viekira Pak contains three new drugs -- ombitasvir, paritaprevir and
dasabuvir --that work together to inhibit the growth of HCV. It also
contains ritonavir, a previously approved drug, which is used to increase
blood levels of paritaprevir.
Abby developed Viekira Pak in partnership with Enanta Pharmaceuticals (ENTA)
. With U.S. approval secured, Enanta is eligible for milestone payments and
royalties on sales of the drugs from Abbvie. | j********8
发帖数: 2201 | | u******n
发帖数: 5727 | |
|
