Hepatitis C drugs negotiated by a pharmacy benefit manager for Medicare Part D were lower in cost than in price-controlled European countries and Japan in 2015, according to a new report done by IMS Health for Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.
The report focused on the prices of Gilead Science's hepatitis C treatments Sovaldi and Harvoni, which have U.S. list prices of about $84,000 and $50,400, respectively, for a 12-week course of treatment, reported BioPharma Dive.
Researchers analyzed the drugs' costs in seven countries for 2015 and found the U.S. had the second lowest average price for the treatments, with Italy having the lowest.
The average discount for hepatitis C drugs were 15 to 20 percent off list price in France, Japan, Spain, German and the U.K, compared to discounts of 45 to 55 percent in the U.S.
"Conventional wisdom has underestimated the ability of large, sophisticated, private-sector payers to reduce costs and improve access to high cost drugs," said PCMA president and CEO Mark Merritt in a statement.
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