Pharma:
U.S. strikes deal on Covid drug pricing
Drugmaker Gilead said this week its Covid-19 treatment drug remdesivir will be sold for $3,120 per treatment course, said Gina Kolata in The New York Times. The drug is the “only treatment so far shown to speed recovery time in severely ill coronavirus patients,” and the company faced considerable pressure over setting a price. The Department of Health and Human Services secured almost the entirety of Gilead’s production for U.S. hospitals through September as part of an “unusual agreement that establishes nonnegotiable prices.” At $520 per vial for a six-day treatment course, the price is well above the $1,600 per regimen that analysts say Gilead would need to recoup its costs.
No price was going to make everybody happy, said Max Nisen in Bloomberg.com. Gilead says that the drug will reduce hospital costs by $12,000 per patient. That may say more about “America’s wildly inflated hospital prices,” than about the fairness of the drug price. And some patients will need longer treatments, which could double the cost. Still, Gilead’s price is below the range that outside analysts say is reasonably cost-effective, and Gilead may well have been able to charge even more. “Not maximizing profit in a pandemic is a low bar, but it’s a good sign that the first drugmaker to the finish line cleared it.”