BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Partitioning HCV

Handicapping the HCV price war; Medicaid wild card

January 19, 2015 8:00 AM UTC

Gilead Sciences Inc. and AbbVie Inc. continue to vie for preferred coverage of their HCV drugs in the U.S. private payer market, and Gilead is out to an early lead when it comes to total lives covered. But much of the population is still up for grabs, and the real victor in share of lives could be determined by how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Medicaid plans respond.

Since FDA approved AbbVie's Viekira Pak paritaprevir/ritonavir/ombitasvir/dasabuvir regimen to treat HCV genotype 1, the pharma and Gilead have been competing for exclusive formulary status by trading rebates for access. Gilead markets Harvoni ledipasvir/sofosbuvir and Sovaldi sofosbuvir. ...