Express Scripts turns to AbbVie in huge hepatitis C deal

The nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager is throwing its weight into a fight over the high cost of treating hepatitis C, saying it will cover a drug from AbbVie while pulling back on those from rival drugmakers.

The treatments traditionally can cost more than $80,000 per patient.

Express Scripts Holding Co. said Monday it will no longer cover Sovaldi and Harvoni from Gilead Sciences Inc. or Johnson & Johnson's Olysio starting Jan. 1, except under limited circumstances. North Chicago-based AbbVie Inc.'s Viekira Pak, approved only Friday, will become the preferred treatment for patients who have genotype 1 hepatitis C, the most common form of the liver-destroying virus.

The three drugs that will no longer be covered are part of a wave of effective but expensive treatments that hit the market in the past year. Patients and insurers have been hoping that growing competition will start to reduce the prices or give payers like Express Scripts some leverage to negotiate better rates.

Sovaldi, which was approved late last year, costs $84,000 for a course of treatment. AbbVie has said the shortest approved course of therapy for Viekira, 12 weeks, will cost about $83,320 at wholesale prices.

An Express Scripts spokesman said his company received a "significant discount" for its coverage of Viekira Pak, but he declined to offer details.

Shares of Gilead sank more than 13 percent, or $14.62, to $93.83 before markets opened Monday, while AbbVie jumped nearly 5 percent, or $3.29, to $71.