How the U.S. can beat hepatitis C: Don’t buy the pills, buy the company

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In a recent article in Forbes, MIT Sloan School of Management visiting scientist Mark Trusheim and co-author Peter B. Bach, a physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, propose a startling response to the prevalence of hepatitis C and the high cost of the leading therapy: The U.S. government should not just pay for the pills — they should buy their maker.

The pharmaceutical company Gilead sells hepatitis C drugs that have 80 percent market share at an estimated average cost per patient as high as $42,000 per curative treatment course. In clinical studies it’s shown to halt, and in some cases reverse, liver damage caused by the disease. “In this unique case … there is an intersection of a clear winning therapy, large public health need, slow adoption, high product pricing,” and a solid business case, say the authors.

By taking the unorthodox approach of buying Gilead and divesting the parts not related to U.S. hepatitis C treatment, the United States “will make [the therapy] affordable to rapidly treat the 2.7 million Americans that the CDC estimates still have hepatitis C,” and save money in the long run, compared to the traditional approach of reimbursing for treatments, Trusheim and Bach say.