Gilead Revenue Soars on Hepatitis C Drug
Record sales of a new hepatitis C drug pushed the first-quarter earnings of Gilead Sciences far beyond expectations, the company reported on Tuesday, but could also heighten concerns about the high cost of the drug, known as Sovaldi, and the ability of the health care system to pay for it.
“If cost were not a factor, we would want to treat the entire population,” said Dr. Rena Fox, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She said it was frustrating that “we finally get this great treatment and then we withhold it.”
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Gilead’s Medicine Sovaldi Beats Estimates by $1 Billion
April 23, 2014
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD:US) overwhelmed sales estimates for its new blockbuster hepatitis C pill in what analysts called the biggest drug start ever, raising questions about insurers’ ability to slow the use of the costly therapy. The shares gained in early trading.
Sovaldi, the company’s $1,000-a-pill medicine to treat hepatitis C, had sales of $2.27 billion in the first quarter, the company said in a statement. That beat an average of analyst estimates by more than $1 billion. The Foster City, California-based company also reported profit excluding certain items of $1.48 a share, beating by 56 cents the analysts’ average estimate (GILD:US).
The hepatitis C sales are “above even the high end of buy-side expectations,” Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with ISI Group LLC in New York, said in a note to clients. He called it the best drug introduction in history. Gilead, the world’s biggest makers of HIV drugs, yesterday reported total first-quarter revenue of $5 billion.
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Why is it I think that if Sovaldi were a cure for breast cancer it would not be so difficult to obtain?
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