Hepatitis C : AbbVie (ABBV) vs Gilead Sciences (GILD)

An estimated 150 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C. The bloodborne virus is spread through unsterile intravenous drug use, among other modes, and years can pass between infection and any sign of symptoms.


Gilead's Sovaldi

• an efficacy rate of more than 90% and requires patients to take just one pill per day over a 12-week period, without significant side effects. Before Sovaldi, the best cure rates were in the 70s.
• Cost: $84,000 for the 12-week treatment
• Sovaldi hit the market first, logging $2.3 billion in sales in the first quarter 2014 alone.
• Meanwhile, some insurers already have felt the pain of outsized price tags for hepatitis C treatments. UnitedHealth Group Inc. in Minneapolis recently noted that Sovaldi's introduction in December resulted in a higher-than-expected $100 million bill in the first quarter. 
• In Illinois, 186 Medicaid members have started using Sovaldi, an agency spokeswoman says. The state is paying the full freight for the drug and through April had paid $10.3 million, though it has asked Gilead for rebates. In fiscal 2013, the agency spent just $6.7 million on all hepatitis C drugs, the spokeswoman says.
• Sovaldi is seen as a game changer for more than its effectiveness. It's an oral therapy and, at least for some patients, can be administered without interferon, a protein with flu-like side effects.
• Gilead is based in Foster City, California

AbbVie

• AbbVie plans to launch this fall. It will be AbbVie's most important product launch since it was spun off by Abbott Laboratories in 2013.
• Matches Sovaldi's efficacy rate, but it requires multiple pills per day and can cause side effects for some patients. In trials of AbbVie's five-drug cocktail, cure rates have hovered in the mid-90s.
• AbbVie hasn't publicized revenue estimates for its new therapy, but analysts have been projecting roughly $800 million in sales for 2015, growing to more than $2 billion annually in the near term—blockbuster status in the pharma industry.
• AbbVie needs a strong showing from its hepatitis C treatment to soften the impact of losing patent protection for Humira, the rheumatoid arthritis blockbuster, in 2016. The multiuse drug generated more than half AbbVie's $19 billion in sales last year. 
• AbbVie is based in North Chicago, Illinois