Dive Brief:
- Gilead increased the list prices for six drugs on Friday: prices for Cayston, Ranexa and Zydelig rose by 10% each; while Complera, Stribild and Letairis rose by 7% each, according to Stat.
- The price hike is the company's second this year, Stat said. Gilead had previously increased the prices of Complera and Stribild by 5% and 7%, respectively.
- Patents for Gilead's TDF-based HIV regimens, such as Complera and Stribild, are set to expire in 2017, a possible factor in the decision to further increase the price. Drug companies typically raise prices for drugs nearing patent expiry.
Dive Insight:
The price hike rounds out a newsworthy week for Gilead, as its new pan-genotypic hepatitis C drug Epclusa was approved last Monday and the company also reached a rebate deal with Massachusetts for some of its existing hepatitis C drugs.
Despite the increased scrutiny over prescription drug prices, Gilead pushed ahead with a second round of price increases. "Gilead typically takes one price increase each year on its HIV products," said Cowen analyst Phil Nadeau in a note cited by SmarterAnalyst. "Therefore, today's price increases deviate from the historical pattern."
For that reason, the analyst suspects the company may be looking to increase revenue as its HIV treatments Complera and Stribild's patents expire on July 25, 2017.
In addition, an increase in price could induce payers to switch to the company's newest HIV treatments, which rely on a compound known as tenofovir alafenamide (TAF), and are more potent and efficient than Complera and Stribild, which rely on tenofovir disoproxil (TDF). Gilead's successor medications Descovy, Genvoya and Odefsey were approved in November 2015, March and April 2016 respectively.
The two types of drugs are currently comparable in price. One month's supply of Complera costs roughly $2,344/month, according to GoodRx, whereas the TAF-based equivalent Odefsey costs $2,346/month. Similarly, Stribild is listed at $2,701/month whereas its TAF-based equivalent Genvoya costs $2,590/month.