Article
CVS Chooses Harvoni Over Viekira Pak
While Abbvie and Express Scripts announced their deal on Viekira Pak, which was approved in late December to treat hepatitis C, CVS/Caremark today announced that several of it's plans would provide exclusive coverage to Gilead's Sovaldi/Harvoni.
Gilead Sciences' (GILD) hepatitis C drugs, Sovaldi and Harvoni, will get exclusive coverage on several plans from CVS/Caremark (CVS), the pharmacy benefits manager said Monday, taking the opposite stance from competitor Express Scripts.
Gilead shares spiked on the news Monday, driving up the entire biotech sector. Last month, shares of Gilead swooned after Express Scripts (ESRX) said it would exclusively offer competitor AbbVie's (ABBV) newly approved hepatitis C therapy on its largest plan.
"CVS/Caremark has completed a thorough evaluation of the existing and new hepatitis C therapies that are now available in the marketplace," Chris Cramer, a spokeswoman for CVS Health, said in an email statement. The news was first reported by Dow Jones. "As a result of that evaluation, effective January 7, 2015, Harvoni and Sovaldi-manufactured by Gilead Sciences Inc.-will be exclusive on the CVS/Caremark Standard Commercial, Exchange (Marketplace), Medicare Part D and Medicaid formularies. "
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