Gilead cuts Sovaldi price in Germany
Gilead has agreed a price cut with Germany's main health insurers – to €41,000 ($46,625) for its hepatitis C drug Sovaldi – for the standard 12-week course of treatment.
Germany's national association of health insurers, the GKV, announced that the price had been agreed at €43,562.52, with a 5.88 per cent discount for statutory insurers. GKV provides insurance cover for about 90 per cent of Germans.
Gilead had originally set the price at €60,000, or €56,500 with the discount.
The reduction follows similar deals with US insurers and represents an almost 44 per cent discount on the original $84,000 cost in the US at launch. It previously agreed a discount in France and is in negotiations regarding similar deals in Italy and Spain, which are key hepatitis C markets.
Gilead CEO John Milligan said, "Italy has committed to volumes this year that I believe are about three times the volume they have ever treated."
Gilead wants to see broader uptake of its drugs in return for lowering the cost. And with as many as 17,000 patients reported to have been treated with Sovaldi in France as part of a temporary utilisation programme, this approach seems to be working.
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