The agency warned against use of AbbVie's Mavyret, Gilead Sciences' Vesovi and Merck's Zepatier in patients with moderate to severe liver disease amid reports of 63 patients with liver decompensation, with some cases being fatal.
NHS said it hopes to make England the first country to eliminate HCV. The effort will involve finding people living with the virus and providing drugs procured from AbbVie, Gilead and Merck.
As technology advances, AI-powered tools will increasingly reduce the administrative burdens on healthcare providers.
The authorized generics, announced amid HCV product pricing pressures, will cost $24,000 - less than one-third the branded drugs' prices - to reflect discounts given to payers.
In the past, organs exposed to hepatitis C were typically discarded or given only to patients who already had the illness. Using them in patients who don’t have the virus could shorten the transplant wait time for hundreds of patients each year.
Gilead’s cure for Hepatitis C presents a prime example of the complicated nature of the drug pricing debate, and how patent rights can help determine pricing.
A federal jury has awarded $2.54 billion in royalties to Merck, ruling against Gilead in a monumental patent infringement case involving two blockbuster hepatitis C drugs. The kicker? The judge has the power to triple that figure.
Executives from Imagine360, Verily, BrightInsight, Lantern, and Rhapsody shared their approaches to reducing healthcare costs and facilitating digital transformation.
By law, Medicaid and Medicare are required to cover medically necessary treatments; they can’t exclude an entire class of medications that are proven effective for cost considerations alone.
Also, FDA launches Oncology Center of Excellence, Siemens has allocated more than $1 billion to its Next47 unit to work with startups with disruptive technology, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is reimbursing for telemedicine through a deal with Doctor On Demand.
Also, Cambia Health Solutions is shutting down Wellero and HeartWare International nixed a deal to buy Valtech Cardio.
This study, called C Tracker, will give researchers insight into patients' daily activity, monitor symptoms and assess the efficacy of treatments.
Closing cancer health equity gaps require medical breakthroughs made possible by new funding approaches.
How is drug effectiveness determined? How do formulary designs, coverage decisions by PBMs, and third party reviews assess the efficacy and effectiveness of drugs?
Last week’s blog post discussed the dangerous precedent that exclusivity deals between drug manufacturers and payers set. Deals like the one Express Scripts and AbbVie’s signed for discounted rates on the new Hepatitis C drug, Viekira Pak. I argued that these deals emphasize the payer trend of focusing on immediate savings rather than overall outcomes, […]
Walter Bianco has had hepatitis-C for 40 years, and his time is running out. “The liver is at the stage next to becoming cirrhotic,” the 65-year-old Arizona contractor says. Cirrhosis is severe scarring, whether from alcoholism or a chronic viral infection. It’s a fateful step closer to liver failure or liver cancer. If he develops […]
Doctors should consider expensive new hepatitis C drugs for patients with advanced liver disease, including those awaiting transplants, but ask most others to wait for drugs in development, the Department of Veterans said Wednesday. A California panel made similar recommendations Monday, saying in a report to insurers, providers and consumers that immediate treatment with the new […]
There’s a new drug regimen being touted as a potential cure for a dangerous liver virus that causes hepatitis C. But it costs $84,000 — or $1,000 a pill. And that price tag is prompting outrage from some consumers and a scramble by insurers to figure out which patients should get the drug —and who pays for it. […]