Late last year Gilead Sciences received FDA approval for its Hepatitis C drug Solvaldi. Hepatitis C (Hep C) affects three to four million Americans and can have serious health consequences. Gilead priced the drug at $1,000 a pill or between $84,000 and $168,000 for the full, curative treatment (effective in approximately 90% of patients). However as priced if every Hep C patient received Solvaldi the cost would equal the combined annual spending amount for all drugs sold in the US.
During this 21 minute podcast Chris discusses how and why this drug's pricing effects all of health care financing and delivery, the work the DC-based Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing is doing to try to mitigate Solvaldi's cost, when and if similar Hep C drugs entering the market will force Gilead to lower its price and why past efforts to moderate pharmaceutical drug pricing, e.g., authoring Medicare to negotiate drug prices it pays, have proved unsuccessful.
Through this past April Chris Dawe was the Health Care Policy Adviser for the White House National Economic Council. Previously, Chris served as Director of Delivery System Reform at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Before joining the administration in 2011 Chris served as a Professional Staff member for the US Senate Finance Committee under Chairman Max Baucus. From 2007 to 2008, Chris served as Health Policy Adviser to Senator John Kerry. Prior still Chris was a Legislative Analyst at Jennings Policy Strategies in DC, while there he served in 2006 as the Deputy Director for Global Health at the Clinton Global Initiative. Before coming to Washington, DC, Chris was a Market Analyst at Partners Healthcare, Massachusetts' largest hospital system. Chris is a Massachusetts native and a magna cum laude gratudate of Bowdoin College.
Policy Options to Mitigate Gilead's $1,000 Hepaitis C Pill: A Conversation with Chris Dawe (July 10th)