Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) might get alarmed by the latest prescription data compiled by Symphony Health Solutions, indicating that Harvoni’s prescriptions have declined, while Viekira Pak witnessed an increase in its prescriptions for the week ending March 6.
The data shows that Gilead's HCV franchise, which consists of Sovaldi and Harvoni, reported a decline in total US retail prescriptions for last week. The decline was mainly attributed to the drop in Harvoni’s sales; Harvoni's total retail prescriptions in the US fell 1% totaling up to 9,450. This was only the third time in Harvoni’s history that prescriptions for the drug fell.
According to Bloomberg Intelligence the last time Harvoni scripts fell during a non-holiday week, its sales bounced back and grew 5% the week after. Harvoni has had a trend of gaining sales by significant margins after a period of declined prescriptions. This is a reason why there will be a close watch on next week's data to see if this is just a bump in the road or a continuation of the trend.
At AbbVie Inc.’s (NYSE:ABBV) end, prescriptions for Viekira Pak grew at a rate higher than that of Harvoni’s, after a long time, a trend which is rarely observed. Viekira Pak prescriptions grew 8% in the week ended March 6, and the drug marked total prescriptions of 498.
As of the week ending March 6, total prescriptions reported for AbbVie’s HCV drug were still behind the total number of prescriptions reported for Gilead’s HCV drug. Combined prescriptions for Sovaldi and Harvoni came in at 11,612.
However, these figures do not include the prescription data from Express Scripts Holding Company Ltd (NASDAQ:ESRX) which indicates that these figures do not show the complete picture of how the current HCV market is divided. Express Scripts, which is the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the US, has been an important player in the HCV market share war which has been going on between AbbVie and Gilead since December last year.
Soon after AbbVie launched Viekira Pak in December 2014, it signed an exclusivity deal with the pharmacy manager by offering its $83,320 treatment at a significant discount. The pharmacy benefit, which had been asking pharmaceuticals to lower the exorbitant prices they had been charging for their drugs, accepted the significant discount offered by AbbVie and agreed not to include Harvoni in its 2015 formulary list.
The deal was seen as a sharp blow to Gilead as Express Scripts provides pharmacy coverage to approximately 85 million lives in the US. The deal meant that Gilead’s Harvoni won’t be available to a very large portion of the HCV-affected population, which is provided coverage by the said pharmacy benefit.
However, recent reports from research firms have indicated that Gilead is still leading the HCV market with a huge margin. Despite Harvoni not being accessible to the large population, which is covered by Express Scripts, Gilead has as much as 56% of access exclusivity rights for the HCV patients who are covered under some sort of coverage contracts. AbbVie’s Viekira Pak has “27% preferred access and 17% co-preferred access to 70% of lives in the US".
