$1,000-a-day miracle drug shocks U.S. health care system
Kim Peterson MoneyWatch April 3, 2014, 8:27 AM Sovaldi, a new hepatitis C treatment, can cure up to 90 percent of patients within three months. There's just one problem: The drug costs $1,000 a day. That price tag has thrown the biotechnology world into turmoil, as lawmakers and insurance companies complain that Sovaldi's maker is trying to milk desperate patients. Doctors are understandably finding it hard to pass over a drug that is so effective. As a result, Sovaldi's manufacturer, Gilead Sciences ( GILD ), is raking in the dough, while its shares have soared 53 percent over the last year. Sovaldi, in fact, may generate the biggest sales ever for a drug's first year. It could bring in a jaw-dropping $7 billion to $10 billion in sales this year alone, analysts say. There are many sides to the Sovaldi story, and here's how the little pill affects them all: Patients: There is no vaccine for hepatitis C, and some 3 million Am