See the pharmaceutical products - both marketed and in the pipeline - that will
dictate industry news flow over the next months.
Harvoni | Viekira Pak – hepatitis C (Gilead Sciences/AbbVie)
AbbVie upturned the apple cart in December when it agreed a significant
discount with Express Scripts to secure formulary access for its newly approved
Viekira Pak. The narrative here is no longer about hepatitis C – access to both
drugs is improved and both products will generate billions of dollars in 2015 –
but is one of treatment costs and the broader implications of a Harvoni/Viekira
'price war'.
Alirocumab | evolocumab – dyslipidaemia (Sanofi & Regeneron/Amgen)
Both products – expected to be the first approved from the PCSK9 inhibitor
class – should reach the market during the second half of 2015. The
statin-intolerant population is large enough to support multi-billion dollar
revenue forecasts for both products, argue analysts, although outcomes study
data – expected in 2017 – are likely to prove critical in shaping uptake. One
fly in the ointment; pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are already targeting the
PCSK9s for aggressive price negotiation following their successes in hepatitis
C.