Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir to Cost $3,120 for Typical Patient on Private Insurance
Gilead Sciences, remdesivir’s maker, said its price will depend on who is paying and how long a patient takes the drug
Remdesivir’s pricing has been hotly debated. Here, a lab technician works on the drug at a facility in Cairo, Egypt, June 25.
Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD -1.22% detailed its pricing plans for Covid-19 drug remdesivir, saying it will charge U.S. hospitals $3,120 for a typical patient with commercial insurance.
The drugmaker on Monday disclosed its pricing plans as it prepares to begin charging for the drug in July. The U.S. has been distributing remdesivir donated by Gilead since the drug was authorized for emergency use in May.
Under the company’s plans, Gilead will charge a higher price for patients with private insurance in the U.S., and a lower price for U.S. government health programs like Medicare and all other developed countries that insure their patients directly.
The government price will be $390 per dose or $2,340 per patient for the shortest treatment course and $4,290 for a longer treatment course.
Gilead said in the U.S. it will charge nongovernment buyers such as hospitals about $520 per dose, or a third more than the government price, for patients who are commercially insured. That works out to $3,120 for a patient getting the shorter, more common course of treatment, and $5,720 for the longer treatment duration.
A man arrives at a hospital amid a coronavirus outbreak in Texas, June 28.
PHOTO: CALLAGHAN O'HARE/REUTERS
The U.S. is the only developed country where Gilead will charge two prices, Gilead Chief Executive Daniel O’Day said in an interview. In other nations, governments negotiate drug prices directly with drugmakers. “The logic is that we wanted a single government price around the developed world,” Mr. O’Day said.
The higher price for U.S. commercially insured patients is because government health programs such as Medicaid typically receive statutorily-defined discounts off the prices companies receive in the private market.
“This medicine is priced far below the value it brings to health-care systems and that’s true for private payers and government payers,” Mr. O’Day said.
On average, the drug should help reduce hospital costs by $12,000 per patient, he said. Gilead estimated the savings based on data showing that each day of hospitalization costs $3,000 and that patients taking remdesivir are discharged four days sooner than those receiving standard treatment, Mr. O’Day said.
Covid-19 patients get two doses of remdesivir by infusion on the first day, and one dose daily afterward. The shortest treatment course is five days, while a longer treatment course takes 10 days.
Currently, 90% to 95% of patients receive five-day treatment courses, Mr. O’Day said.
Remdesivir is the first antiviral drug shown to be effective at treating Covid-19 in a major clinical trial, reducing patients’ recovery times by four days compared with the placebo group in a large study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Air travel is full of opportunities for coronavirus transmission. Touchless check-in, plexiglass shields, temperature checks, back-to-front boarding and planes with empty middle seats are all now part of the flying experience, and the future may bring even more changes. Illustration: Alex Kuzoian
So far, few other drugs have proven in human testing to help coronavirus patients. One drug that recently produced positive results in a clinical trial was the steroid dexamethasone.
The drug, which treats Covid-19 by a different mechanism than remdesivir, has been on the U.S. market for decades to treat other diseases. It hasn’t been authorized in the U.S. to treat Covid-19, but doctors are allowed to prescribe it “off-label” under U.S. regulations.
Given its unique status, remdesivir’s pricing has been widely anticipated—and hotly debated—among doctors, health insurers and investors. It could serve as the starting point for other drugs that eventually prove to safely treat coronavirus patients.
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a nonprofit group that analyzes pharmaceutical prices, said last week that a cost-effective price for remdesivir would be $2,520 to $2,800 per patient if dexamethasone becomes a standard medication for Covid-19.
Without dexamethasone, a cheap generic medication, remdesivir would be cost-effective at a range of $4,580 to $5,080 a patient, ICER said.