The drug Sovaldi, manufactured by Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead Sciences, has garnered a lot of attention for its hefty price tag, coming in at $1,000 per pill, or up to $84,000 for a full course of hepatitis C treatment.
While healthcare providers and payers are questioning the affordability of such a drug, it still remains the chosen treatment for Americans with the virus, according to a Washington Post report.
Of the 48,000 prescriptions filled for four hepatitis C pills in May, Sovaldi prescriptions accounted for 75 percent of them, according to the report.
Additionally, 62,000 new patients tried Sovaldi in its first 30 weeks on the market, three times more than the number of patients who tried an earlier promising hepatitis C medication. Of all the hepatitis C drugs, Sovaldi's launch was the most successful, according to the report.
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