A single course of Sovaldi costs $84,000, while the later released drug Harvoni has a $94,500 cost for a course of treatment. The Senate Finance Committee released a 144-page report on its findings from an 18-month, bipartisan investigation of the drugs’ pricing and marketing. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and senior committee member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) headed up the report.
The report concludes Gilead Sciences’ primary concern was maximizing revenue, while affordability was not a focus. “Gilead pursued a calculated scheme for pricing and marketing its Hepatitis C drug based on one primary goal, maximizing revenue, regardless of the human consequences,” said Sen. Wyden in the report. “If Gilead’s approach to pricing is the future of how blockbuster drugs are launched, it will cost billions and billions of dollars to treat just a fraction of patients.”
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