Express Scripts plans to ask clients, composed of national employers, health insurance plans and government agencies, to join a coalition that would stop using Sovaldi once a rival medicine is approved for the U.S., expected next year, said Steven Miller, chief medical officer of the company. Express Scripts' annual Drug Trend Report released Tuesday found spending on specialty drugs rose 14 percent in 2013 and predicted it will leap another 63 percent by the end of 2016 based mainly on prices for new pills to treat the 2.7 million Americans with hepatitis C. Treatment for inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, and for multiple sclerosis and cancer are responsible for 60 percent of the cost. If everyone with hepatitis C was treated with Sovaldi, the cost would exceed $300 billion - more than the U.S. currently spends on all prescription drugs, Miller said. U.S. lawmakers last month asked Gilead, the world's largest biotechnology company by market value, to explain how the company set the drug's price and what it is doing to ensure low-income patients can get it.
Reported by SFGate 9 hours ago.
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