“When new drugs are both effective and expensive In December, the Food and Drug Administration approved two drugs for the treatment of Hepatitis C. Both have had dramatic results. One drug, Sovaldi, is 90% effective in curing Hep C in patients given a daily pill for 12 weeks, according its manufacturer Gilead Sciences. But, while the statistics clearly show a positive development for patients, the drugs successes have also raised some tough ethical questions. Sovaldi costs $1,000 a day. Such high costs have insurers evaluating what coverage they should allow for. Three million Americans are infected with Hepatitis C. Existing drugs are 65-70% effective. Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, said it’s likely the new hepatitis C medications will be part of a new wave of extremely expensive, complex, “specialty” medications. “The country needs to have a public discussion about what taxpayers are willing to pay for, at what point do we say, ‘We can’t do this for everybody?”
