Dive Brief:
- State Medicaid directors have written an eight page letter to key congressional leaders, asserting that the high cost of drugs like the hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi requires "an immediate federal solution."
- The Medicaid leaders argue that Congress should consider price controls on manufacturers and federal help for states trying to pay for new medicines like Sovaldi, cancer drugs and other treatments.
- Sovaldi has become very popular, as it offers a 90% cure rate for hepatitis C. But it costs about $84,000 per treatment course, an expense which has doubled or tripled prescription drug spending for hepatitis C treatments in the first quarter of 2014 in several states, the directors said.
Dive Insight:
It's not surprising that the state Medicaid directors are turning to Congress for help. They're in a very difficult position. More than 750,000 Americans with chronic hepatitis C receive state-funded care through Medicaid or the prison system. And if trends continue as they are, the US will spend 1,800% more on hepatitis C medications in 2016 than it did last year. Express Scripts projects that states will spend more than $55.2 billion if they give all of these patients the latest therapy of Sovaldi and ribavirin.
Unfortunately, it's unlikely that Medicaid leaders will be able to convince Congress to bring the hammer down on the pharmas, which have a strong track record at beating back initiatives designed to control costs. Clearly, something will have to be done to address specialty drug pricing, but it's probably not going to come in the form of congressional legislation.
Want to read more? You may enjoy this story on the 6 things you need to know about Sovaldi.