Dallas, Texas 02/18/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – The $124 billion market capped bio tech major Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) reported on 11th February that it has filled a new drug application in front of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking for go ahead from the regulator on its drug candidate Ledipasvir which is to be administered in combination with Sofosbuvir. This drug combination is designed to treat adult patients suffering from Hepatitis C.
The move by the drug maker tracked by the S&P 500 index comes on the back of impressive data it has gathered from its phase 3 clinical trials conducted on close to 2000 patients suffering from Hepatitis C. The drug firm claims that FDA approval would help patients, since the treatment course would be cut down to eight weeks from current 12 to 14 week mediation course and will summarily make it unnecessary for patients to be administered with the costly ribavirin vaccine. It is interesting to note here that the same drug is being pursued by the drug maker for approval from other regulators from across like globe.
In a related development, Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) reported on 13th February that it has received positive responses from global medical insurance firms on its proposed pricing of its new drug to treat hepatitis C at $84,000 dollars. This treatment is expected to last for 12 week course and would be out of reach of majority of U.S Citizens in the event of insurance firms not covering the treatment course by this costly drug.
Commenting about its outreach programme to sound out medical insurance providers, Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) Chief Operating Officer and President John F. Milligan Ph. D has been quoted to have said that, “We’ve been approached by some big plans and some big HMOs about making sure that they can get access early and they’ve already engaged with us on negotiations. To date, without exception, those conversations have been very productive.”