Dallas, Texas 08/18/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) success as a Hepatitis C treatment has been layered. On the one hand the biotechnology company has been able to obtain approval its flagship drug Sovaldi, in under a year from launch, it is now covered by UK’s NICE as well.
Separately, the company can also rejoice from the positive turn of a lawsuit, which will now see Roche, lose its claim over solvadi as a ‘prodrug.’
Technically when Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) bought Pharmasseset, for Sovaldi it did not expect to see Roche as a contender. Pharmasset was a unit with which Roche was in the midst of a collaboration plan in 2004, which included Pharmasset’s “PSI-6130 and its prodrugs.”
Post the purchase of pharmasset, Roche claimed that Sovaldi was a prodrug.
What is a prodrug?
Prodrugs are special type of drug category which begun to be the active drug as soon as they enter the patient. But the side-effects of such drugs are not visible until they breakdown. Therefore, for Pharmassets, PSI_6130 is a prodrug which Roche claimed in terms of derivatives, besides the main compound.
However, fortunately for Gilead, Pharmasset failed to match its claims that it was a prodrug, and has now denied the suit by arbitration panel.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) however, is not clear of trouble on the lawsuits phase, because two other major pharmaceutical companies, Merck and AbbiVie lawsuits are yet to be finalized. As another report noted Gilead will now be part of UK’s NICE, as it has now agreed that it will now pay for Sovaldi.
NICE follows very strict rules of approval, where it will cost of the drug as against the potential of the drug. As of the current practices, the company has rejected several of the cancer drugs which are priced exorbitantly.