The American people are angry-Gilead's sky-high hepatitis C drug Sovaldi sells for only 1% in India

Source: Biovalley on August 8, 2014, sales of the star drug of Gilead hepatitis C, sovaldi, reached an amazing $5.8 billion in the first half of 2014 The drug was launched in the United States in December 2013, and has become the focus of the industry since its birth The pricing of its $84000 / course (1000 / tablet) has also been controversial The U.S House of Representatives, patient rights groups and other organizations have strongly called for sovaldi to reduce prices, while Gilead insisted that the drug would save taxpayers a lot of money in the long run However, in an interview with the times of India yesterday, Gilead said it would sell sovaldi, or $900 / course, in India at a price of 1%, with a discount of 99% Predictably, the move will annoy the American people The Indian people are Gilead's parents! Gilead also said that the price of sovaldi would be further reduced after the company entered into cooperation with several local imitators to produce and supply drugs to the local market in India Currently, Gilead still needs to complete relevant clinical trials in India Gregg Alton, Geely's executive vice president, said in a statement: "the price of sovaldi in India is $300 per bottle (28 tablets), which is the price that the company faces in low-income countries, similar to the price negotiated by the Egyptian government We hope that our partners in India will produce drugs locally, with higher capacity and continuous R & D, which will further reduce the price of sovaldi in the later stage " Alton explained that when negotiating, a company will be divided into 3 pricing strategies based on the per capita income of a country and the incidence rate of hepatitis C: low, middle and high income According to the World Health Organization (who), India has 12 million patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV); according to the world bank, in 2009-2013, India's per capita income was only $1499, compared with $53143 in the United States In addition, in India, currently, the cost of hepatitis C treatment is as high as US $6000, which usually requires injection of drugs with serious side effects (interferon) for a treatment course of 24-48 weeks Apart from the above factors, multinational pharmaceutical companies have other considerations when pricing expensive drugs in India Because the Indian government has the right to exercise the compulsory license If it thinks that the brand medicine is too high for the local market, it will exercise the compulsory license to allow the local imitators to produce cheap generic drugs, and the Indian government is already exercising the compulsory license right When this happens, multinational pharmaceutical companies not only lose their direct sales in India, but also risk losing their product control (i.e patent) For example, the Indian government has authorized local NATCO companies to produce Bayer's cancer brand drug, Nexavar, and Bayer is now appealing to court in an attempt to prevent NATCO from selling generic drugs outside India And NATCO has asked the Indian patent office to block Gilead sovaldi's patents in India so that it can make the drug itself However, sovaldi's prices in India and the United States are so different that even if all of the above factors exist, they are not enough to prevent American critics from strongly criticizing Gilead According to Gilead, in the United States, the wholesale purchase cost (WAC) of 28 tablets / bottle sovaldi is 28000 US dollars, i.e 1000 US dollars per tablet Most patients need to be treated for 12 weeks, i.e the total cost of a course is 84000 US dollars.