WHO Seeks to Lower the Price of New Hepatitis C Drug, Sovaldi

Gilead Sciences' new hepatitis C drug, Sovaldi, will cost $84,000 for a 12-week treatment plan, rounding out to $1,000 a day. Bound to cause a whirlwind among investors and the healthcare world, the World Health Organization has stepped in.

The drug is facing protests in the United States because of the excessively high price that Gilead Sciences set for their new product. Despite its potential effectiveness - it is projected to cure 90% of the targeting hepatitis C patients - its gross income will exceed that of every other pharmaceutical drug if a majority of 150 million hepatitis C patients purchase it.

As a result, the World Health Organization is urging Gilead Sciences to make the drug cheaper and more accessible to help those in dire need of the medication and to avoid creating tremendous problems for insurance companies and investors. But pharmaceutical companies argue that they need to charge high prices on new effective drugs because they need to cover the expensive cost of development.

WHO officials are giving governments an extensive plan laying out testing, treatment, and prevention mechanisms for hepatitis C (HCV) and are sending out a strong message regarding Sovaldi's price. WHO recently influenced Gilead to drive down the price of their AIDS drugs to make them more accessible to people in Africa.

The highest cases of the hepatitis C virus are in middle-income countries, specifically China, India, and Russia, which is a big concern because many in need of the drug won't be able to afford it. Such diseases and viruses are more common in middle-to-low income countries because they don't have the proper medical means to prevent them. A prime example is the recent Ebola outbreak in Western Africa, where hemorrhagic fevers are common because of the lack of preventive medical measures.

Hepatitis C causes between 300,000 and 500,000 deaths per year and costs between $1,850 - $6,000 annually for each infected patient. Sovaldi, although will help a majority of these patients, will drastically increase healthcare costs and will not be affordable for many of those throughout the world.

To read more about WHO's intervention with Sovaldi's price, visit this Reuters news article.