Here are five things to know:
1. The Senate found Gilead Sciences “pursued a calculated scheme for pricing and marketing its hepatitis C drug based on one goal: maximizing revenue regardless of the human consequences.”
2. In response to the investigation, community activists protested in front of the San Francisco hotel on Jan. 11.
3. In the first half of 2015, Medical Part D spent $4.6 million on hepatitis C with a 12-week course of Gilead’s Harvoni priced at almost $100,000.
4. Because many payers would not pay for treatment, the company stopped its medication assistance program despite expecting profits of nearly $30 billion in 2015.
5. Gilead said its prices are justified because the treatment is changing lives. More than 90 percent of hepatitis C patients can be cured with one pill a day.
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