by Leslie Small
Gilead Sciences, Inc. recently revealed that for promising
COVID-19 treatment remdesivir, it will charge $2,340 for a typical five-day,
six-vial treatment course for people covered by U.S. government health programs
and $3,120 for those covered by private insurance.
In an open letter, Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day argued that Gilead
priced remdesivir "well below" its estimated value, considering it can
save the U.S. health care system approximately $12,000 per patient by reducing
the length of COVID-19 patients' hospital stays.
But not everyone is convinced by that argument.
"So they're saying by shortening hospital stays, the system
is going to save all these monies, but I always ask the question, 'Why is it
that the drug company should get to pocket all or some substantial portion of
that savings?'" says Jack Hoadley, Ph.D., a research professor emeritus at
Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. "That's a savings we
should accumulate for consumers, for payers [and] everybody else."
Hoadley is not alone in those views. The advocacy group Patients
for Affordable Drugs, in a June 29 statement, wrote that "Gilead's price
for remdesivir shows once again that we can’t trust Big Pharma to act
responsibly — even in the face of a global pandemic."
The U.S. government helped fund the development of remdesivir,
and dexamethasone — a generic steroid — is priced at less than $1 per day even
though it "showed promise for combating severe COVID-19 cases and reducing
potential mortality rates," the organization said.
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) also
brought up dexamethasone in its statement. The U.S. price range of $2,340 to
$3,120 is "is largely in line with ICER's independent assessment
suggesting that a price of approximately $2,800 would be reasonable in
proportion to the added benefits for patients and the cost offsets in the
health system now that dexamethasone is rapidly becoming standard of
care," wrote ICER President Steven D. Pearson, M.D.
Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges, in a June 29 note to investors,
pointed out that the U.S. commercial price set for remdesivir was below his
firm's expectations. Still, "we believe the disclosed [remdesivir] pricing
is reasonable, and should provide significant value to the Gilead shareholders
and still deflect much of the criticism the company might face in this emergency,"
Porges wrote.
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