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Sovaldi maker: Drug's cost "reflects the value of the medicine"

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The maker of the drug Sovaldi says the medicine's $1,000-per-day price tag is based on Sovaldi's ability to cure hepatitis C, and that it will "forcefully defend itself" against a lawsuit accusing the company of price gouging.

Foster City, California-based pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc. made the comments in a statement emailed to Business Insurance late Sunday night. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in Philadelphia sued Gilead in federal court earlier this month, accusing the drugmaker of“selectively charging exorbitant prices” for Sovaldi after SEPTA paid more than $2.4 million for Sovaldi in 2014.

Gilead, in its statement, said SEPTA's lawsuit is "completely devoid of merit." The company also said it believes "the price of Sovaldi reflects the value of the medicine."

"Unlike long-term or indefinite treatments for other chronic diseases, Sovaldi offers a cure at a price that will reduce hepatitis C treatment costs in the short-term and deliver significant healthcare savings to the health care system over the long term," the statement reads. "The cost of the entire... regimen of 12 weeks of Sovaldi with interferon and ribavirin is consistent with and in many cases actually less than the cost of the previous protease inhibitor based regimens – with shorter duration of therapy, increased tolerability, and higher efficacy."

Sovaldi generated $8.55 billion in sales for the first nine months of 2014, Gilead said in the statement.

Express Scripts Inc., the nation's largest pharmacy benefit manager, told BI last week that it was pushing Gilead and other hepatitis C drug makers for more competitive prescription prices. The PBM announced Monday that it has teamed up with drugmaker AbbVie Inc. to pay a lower cost for its recently approved hepatitis C drug, Viekira Pak.