Hepatitis C medication costs in 2015 proved lower for the
U.S. than Europe and Japan, particularly prices negotiated by pharmacy
benefit managers (PBMs) in Medicare Part D, the Pharmaceutical
Care Management Association (PCMA) recently reported.
PCMA commissioned IMS Institute for Healthcare
Informatics, based in Parsippany, New Jersey, to conduct an independent
study focusing on two drugs, Sovaldi and Harvoni. The
results indicated that of seven industrialized nations, only Italy registered
costs lower than those in the U.S. for an average 12-week treatment of
Hepatitis C, although Italy has a lower treatment rate than the U.S.
“According to this comparison,
conventional wisdom has underestimated the ability of large, sophisticated,
private-sector payers to reduce costs and improve access to high-cost drugs,” Mark Merritt, PCMA president and CEO, said.
In addition to Italy’s comparative price
statistics, the study also determined that the net U.S. cost of Harvoni ($50,400) was lower than that of France, Japan, Spain,
Germany, and the United Kingdom in 2015. Net prices for Sovaldi in the U.S. also came in under the average European nation cost of $45,055.
Regarding discounts, European nations
averaged 15 to 20 percent off retail list prices, whereas U.S. discounts were
reported as 45 to 55 percent.
Finally, Medicare Part D accounted for approximately
half of U.S. incidence and treatment for Hepatitis C in 2015.
"We have focused exclusively on two Gilead products because
of the more complete disclosure of net prices by the company, governments or
private payers than was the case for the other manufacturers in the market, and
because the products generally represent the highest share of treated patients
in these countries,” Murray Aitken, executive director of the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics,said.
PBMs manage drug plans for over 266
million Americans with health insurance annually.
Alerts Sign-up