Hepatitis C patients got a closer to a breakthrough treatment when U.S. regulators on Friday approved the sale of the first pill that promises to cure most people with the illness — without requiring other medication that may cause serious side effects.
The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it cleared the new pill, Harvoni, for patients with genotype 1 of hepatitis C, a form of the liver-destroying virus that accounts for roughly 70 percent of U.S. cases.
About 3.2 million Americans live hepatitis C, which ravages the liver over time and can cause a host of other dangerous diseases, including cancer.
Harvoni builds on Gilead’s first-generation blockbuster hep C treatment, Sovaldi, which went on sale late last year at a cost of $1,000 a pill and more than $84,000 for a course of treatment. The stratospheric price has raised the ire of some health care systems and insurance providers, while raking in $3.48 billion in sales for the company in the first quarter it was on the market. Meanwhile, more than dozen European countries have joined forces to try and negotiate a lower price for Sovaldi.
A Gilead spokesperson told reporters on Friday that the coast of Harvoni would be $94,500 for 12 weeks, and the eight week cost will be $63,000.
Doctors and patients have been waiting for Harvoni because the pills can be taken without the injections that Sovaldi is supposed to be taken with, the Wall Street Journal reported. Those injections can have serious and flu-like side effects such as depression, fatigue and headaches. The new generation of pills also had a better cure rate in clinical trials.
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