Gilead Drops After Drug Manager Blocks $1,000 Hep C Pill

Gilead shares sank after the biggest drug-benefit manager in the U.S. chose a pill from AbbVie to be the sole hepatitis C treatment approved for many patients, as insurers seek to rein in the rising cost of medicine. “For months, drugmakers have said that when competition comes onto market it will lead to lower prices for the existing treatments,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for insurance-industry lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans, in an e-mail. “Soon we’ll know whether that’s true or if they’ll just continue to use government protection to keep prices sky-high.”

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