The price of Sovaldi, against hepatitis C, has been set at € 41,001 per treatment, and it will be reimbursed 100% to patients. An agreement welcomed by both the government and the manufacturing laboratory.
Sovaldi, this very effective drug against hepatitis C (90% cure), available in France in hospitals, hit the headlines with its very high price: 58,000 euros for a three-month treatment. A price that weighs heavily on health insurance expenses since France has 200,000 potential patients. Result, within a year, the bill for Social Security was to stand at 1 billion euros.
At the end of negotiations with the first laboratory that markets this product, the American Gilead, the health products economic committee (CEPS) has set the price of the drug Sovaldi at € 13,667 excluding tax per box of 28 tablets, or € 41,001 for a treatment.
The lowest public price in Europe
A victory for the Ministry of Health which recalls that it is “the lowest public price in Europe. The fixing of this price puts an end to the period of temporary authorization for use (ATU), which allowed patients to have early access to this drug. The laboratory will have to reimburse to the Health Insurance the difference between the price charged during this period and the price which has just been fixed. ”
In a statement, Gilead is pleased that an agreement has been reached with the health authorities. “Good news for infected patients”, according to the laboratory, because the agreement will allow an expansion of access to care, in accordance with the medical need defined by the High Authority for Health (HAS) and the retrocession order (Severe F2 / HIV-HCV co-infected regardless of the stage of fibrosis …)
A tax for laboratories
In addition, the Ministry of Health recalls that the Social Security Financing Bill for 2015 establishes a regulatory mechanism to make the laboratory bear the costs of exceeding the expenses devoted to treatments, when they exceed a certain volume. .
In practice, the text provides for the implementation of the “K rate”, a mechanism created in 1999 to protect the health insurance against an excessively large or too rapid increase in drug costs compared to the anticipated trend.
Medicines reimbursed at 100%
Finally, “taking into account the irreplaceable and particularly expensive nature of this treatment”, Marisol Touraine has decided to eliminate the financial contribution of the insured for this drug which will therefore be covered 100% by health insurance.
The National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) has also issued a temporary authorization for the use of the HARVONI specialty, the 1st of a new generation of products intended for the treatment of hepatitis C.
The price offered by the laboratory (48,000 euros for three months of treatment) makes it possible to halve the current cost of the available dual therapy.
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