woah I was a bit staggered by the possible price tag on Sofos. Oh well I liked the therapeutic jacuzzi part! I'm sure there will be lots of competition :-)

Quote from article................"The pace of innovation, spurred by drugmakers jostling for a slice of a market that may reach $15 billion by 2018, has turned hepatitis C research into one of the fastest-developing areas of medicine."

I would like to think that means that drugmakers are working REAL hard on a CURE.......................... :):):):)

Hopefully the are not just wanting a "slice of the pie" at the patients expense.........

But I am so far out of the loop...........who knows:(

"Gilead may charge up to $100,000 per patient for a course of sofosbuvir, according to ISI Group in New York."

The only thing that makes me sicker than HCV or the Riba sides is reading about the $$ and pharm co games.

Being on a BI study, BI's absence from the discussion was noticeable and interesting... and, I objected to the term "warehousing." I was told since I was dx 10 years ago to "watch & wait." I had chronic HCV with little liver damage having had it since the 60s. I could not take interferon because of my RA drugs. I was closely watched till these new drugs became available. Closely watched is NOT warehoused!!

and what was the "dud" part???

Don't these guys have to wear hair nets and what is with all that facial hair dangling over the drugs he is mixing...ugh!

Yeah, where was the "dud" part? Maybe it's the freaking PRICE.

100K - please! Just for SOFOS? What if you do only eight weeks, as trials now in progress are analyzing? That would mean about $12,000 a week! Okay, for 12 weeks then - $8300 or so a week? I have good healthcare coverage, but they won't TOUCH that. Then for us Gen 1's, we're looking at the absolute necessity of adding Ledipasvir if we are with Gilead (even into one pill, it will add to the price, I would think). Riba is cheap (compared to these numbers), okay fine, but I personally hope I never have to take it.

I wish every one of us who cannot get into a trial COULD. I am limited by the long distance to ALL the trial centers I know of, and I've been looking into this for six months - as well as by other health issues that rule out InterFEARon unless I have a death wish... and health issues that resulted in me failing screening for an Abbvie trial in two attempts = I cannot ever screen for another Abbvie trial again, acc. to them.

I hope a whole lotta pharmas compete very very strongly against Gilead to bring those prices down - and get this stuff approved, various pharmas, and into our hands. But the prices have got to come down or they're not going to be selling a whole lot of it.

Gotta keep hope alive somehow. I plan on treating next year as a Gen 1a. I have to believe it will happen.

Dont freak out! that price is totally absurd, its not realistic, its probably a tactic, freak them with 100,000 and than later they will happily accept 40, 000. When you think about it even 20,000 would be a rediculous amount compared to a much longer tx with interferon which I think cost $11,000 over here. Didn't they say the reason why interferon was SO expensive was because of the peg part being difficult to make?? and we are all talking about it, making it famous, when it might not actually be much different from the next one to hit the market. Competition is our friend.

Agreed - the more competition the merrier in this game.

Competition will drive the prices down. My hepatologist mentioned that to me a few months ago - he foresees a CHOICE of meds from different pharmas in the next wave - all Ifn. free, even for Gen 1's. The more on the market, the less they cost. He also told me that there will be some options on the table by the end of this year, but for Gen 1's, 2014 is THE year. He's in a pretty good position to know - involved with research and Director of Hepatology at a huge university system in CA.

I'm not freaking out - I come across that way a lot - can't help it, I guess. I'm okay - just waiting like a lot of us. Nothing I can do to speed things up - except pray and be nice :)

Confused by what you wrote,"... and we are all talking about it, making it famous, when it might not actually be much different from the next one to hit the market." ????? p.s. I don't know what the reason was/is for the I'frn being so expensive.

arh sorry CM, , its just the way I talk I suppose, I was meaning the group us, not anyone person. Sorry if I offended anyone here. Making it famous was the easiest way I could say that when the market is flooded with options, which one will people choose, the well known product with the suggested $100,000 value or a lesser known "cheaper" product, I suppose I just think they are thinking ahead and its some sort of business tactic. But I am not educated in such things just a suspicious person.

My question remains, will insurance companies cover new Tx's if "my" HCV dx is determined to be a pre-existing condition after 2014?
Not sure if question makes sense, however, at these prices I WILL not be able to treat. Period.

Perhaps I'll re-read article. Thanks Kramer for the informative article.

Oh, I get it now. Hey, hey now - no offense taken. I totally didn't take your comment personally; I just couldn't quiet figure it out. NOW it's obvious, by "it" you meant any of the drugs in the pipeline. I should have been able to see that when I first read it. Duh. You have a VERY good point. I'll let my doc decide when the time comes, and I HOPE I can trust him! But never can be sure of that.

Peace! :)

My insurance paid $65K for 3 months of Tx (incivek, ribs, peg).... then I quit because it wasn't working. Yes, they will pay if they're good.

Thanks Hepcat, I was perusing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which goes into full swing at the beginning of next year, and got a little discouraged thinking Big Pharma and the FDA may slow down progress on new drugs in order to appease said insurance carriers. I probably have it all backwards and I have no clue why I'm thinking negatively this morning.. ... Gotta stop that. Thx.

Your question makes a whole lotta sense, peeps!

Right now, HIPAA is the law, and under it a group health plan may not impose a pre-existing condition exclusion if the person has had creditable medical coverage for at least 12 months as long as the person had no more than 63 days with no coverage.

Okay, in January 2014 in comes the ACA (Affordable Care Act - ObamaCare): " Beginning January 1, 2014, the ACA requires new and grandfathered group plans to eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions for everyone."

http://101.communitycatalyst.org/key_regulation_concepts?id=0002

From another website: http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid/documents/webcontent/002573-pdf.pdf

"Does the 2010 Affordable Care Act affect HIPAA?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed in 2010 has or
will change the way health insurance companies manage coverage for pre-existing conditions.

The ACA does not allow insurance companies to deny
coverage for pre-existing conditions (such as diabetes or cancer) in children. Starting in 2014, it will not allow
denial of coverage of pre-existing conditions in adults"

So far, so good, but then comes this:

"The ACA says that each state must have a Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) for people who have not had insurance for 6 months or more and have cancer or another pre-existing condition. Whether the state or the US Department of Healthand Human Services runs the PCIP program depends on the state. The program name and design also may vary depending on which state you live in. (Go to
www.healthcare.gov/law/provisions/preexisting/index
.html for the most current information on whats available in your state.)"

I'm not sure about these state PCIP's and how that will affect things. I don't think most states OR insurance companies OR healthcare providers yet have a firm grasp on ObamaCare's provisions - it seems quite complex. Heck, it IS complex. Will you be getting NEW health coverage under ObamaCare? I want to say that the "pre-existing conditions" thing will no longer apply to anyone, but... I can't be sure ...

Hope this helps and doesn't further confound. This is a major shift in healthcare in this country, and insurance companies WILL be looking for loopholes. Heck, I don't even know where I will stand with Medicare and TriCare. Wish I could have treated before 2014 - triple tx would have cost me about $20 a month or something!

Ah, peeps ....

peeps - there's some discussion on this issue on the "Medicare and SS" thread - check out Hank's post #23.

The ACA is really staggering in that We the People don't know how it affects each of us as individuals. For example, I have Medicare and TriCare - with TriCare as my pharma provider (thank GOD). Are my husband and I going to be "taxed" somehow to pay for ACA coverage for everyone? If so, HOW MUCH? The way the ACA was held up by the Supreme Court is that it was considered to be a "tax" --

This issue is going to heat up increasingly in the coming months. We the People are under-informed - not saying ACA is good or bad - just that we don't KNOW what it means, how it affects us as individuals. Not that some of us haven't been trying to figure it out - but that the information is just not there in any language that I, for one, can comprehend and know that I have the complete answers. So, I guess we all find out in January, which is a helluva thing. I do know that as a Medicare recipient, my doctors will not be as readily available as they have been because more people will be insured - that is a GOOD thing for this country, yes it is. However, I don't trust our govt. to be making decisions that are truly in our best interests. There's so much we don't know....