While the politics of insurance has garnered the most ink, Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield has also been busy trying to manage the high costs of specialty prescription drugs.
One of those, hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi, has created its own political problem.
Patented by Gilead Sciences Inc. of Foster City, California, Sovaldi claims a “very high” cure rate. A course of treatment for one patient costs about $84,000, and there are about 3 million people infected with hep C in the United States. Sovaldi received U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval in December 2013 and has quickly become a major expense item for state-run Medicaid programs and for private insurers.
CEO Mark White says ABCBS expects to spend more than $50 million on the drug this year.
He said he could argue that the price of Sovaldi is too high, which is the position of activist groups seeking to void Gilead’s patent in a host of countries around the world.
But White pointed out that Sovaldi is cheaper than a liver transplant — the ultimate treatment for advanced hep C — and has a higher success rate.
“Eventually [the high price of the medication] gets built into your costs,” he said. “Everyone that buys coverage pays a part of that.”
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