I’ve been writing about Sovaldi, which is a new drug for hepatitis C.
Sovaldi, made by Gilead, is indeed a game changer for the millions of people afflicted with this disease that can lead to liver disease and ultimately death. What’s new and different is that, in combination with other, older medications, Sovaldi can reduce side effects and duration of treatment, while increasing effectiveness. But is this medication virtually worth its weight in gold?
Gilead thinks so and is charging $1,000 per pill, or $84,000 for one course of treatment.
The New York Times blog The Upshot prepared a series of graphic comparisons of Sovaldi vs. other drugs. You can look at the charts and graphs here.
“To help put Sovaldi’s price in context for The Upshot, the health care consulting firm Visante prepared a set of other high-earning “breakthrough” drugs from the past 15 years. The comparison drugs were all, like Sovaldi, the first in their class. To avoid comparisons to niche drugs that treat only a handful of patients, the list is limited to drugs that have sold at least $1 billion over their lifetimes.
“We generally think of new drugs in two categories. Traditional, small-molecule drugs are chemically synthesized and treat broad populations. Among the drugs in this category that Visante examined were Pfizer’s Celebrex, the arthritis drug, and Prilosec, the acid reflux drug developed by the company now known as AstraZeneca. Specialty drugs are designed for smaller patient populations and are typically more complicated to make. Drugs in this category include Amigen’s Enbrel, an injectable drug for rheumatoid arthritis, and Genentech’s Herceptin, a drug for a particular genetic variant of breast cancer.
“When it comes to the number of patients treated, Sovaldi looks more like a mass-market drug.” (NYT The Upshot)
However, when it comes to price, Sovaldi not only looks more like a specialty drug, it is more than two times the price of the most expensive comparison specialty drug looked at by The Upshot.
“Put those things together and you start to see why insurers and state officials are so nervous. The total estimated sales for the drug in its first year dwarf those of both cheaper mass-market drugs and more expensive specialty drugs.
Which Makes It a New Kind of Blockbuster
So far, Sovaldi has brought in $5.1 billion in revenue this year. Analysts at the health care consultancy Visante project it will reach $10 billion by the end of the year. “ (NYT)
The NYT seems to have some sympathy for the insurance companies and state health officials who will be lining Gilead’s pockets as more and more people with previously untreatable or hard to treat hep C seek to have the virus eliminated with a multi-drug cocktail regime that includes Sovaldi.
But who should really have our sympathy? The drug companies or the millions of people who face a choice between a chronic and ultimately fatal illness or an outrageously expensive medication?
The Sovaldi story highlights the illegitimacy of the capitalist “health” system. Why is the development of a life-saving medication under the purview of a for-profit corporation? Why does Gilead get to set the price to whatever the market will bear? Because that is the logic of the capitalist system.
It is a logic that has outstayed its usefulness. It needs to be superseded by a logic that asserts a universal human right to healthcare, a logic that places science in the service of the majority of society, rather than being a source of commodities that will enrich the few.
