Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has come forward with a generic version of the drug Sovaldi, of the Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD).This latter drug had been the block-buster hepatitis C drug of Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) and had enjoyed immense popularity. However, it will now be sold at a price of $10.
This generic drug of Sovaldi, developed by Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. goes by the name of Hopetavir and will be sold at $900 for a period of 12 weeks. On the other hand, Gilead Sciences Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GILD) Sovaldi tended to be very expensive. Up till now, it was the most effective drug for hepatitis C treatment and was being sold at $86,000 for a period of twelve weeks. Owing to this reason, Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) had to face a lot of criticism, regarding the overpricing of its drugs. Another drug manufactured by Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) of the like kind, Harvoni, comes with an even higher price tag of $94,500 for 12 weeks.
The hefty prices of these drugs makes them unaffordable. Quite a large of number of people are suffering from Hepatitis C, particularly in developing countries, and such expensive treatments are out of question for them. Therefore, there was a dire need for a generic version of this drug; so that people who cannot afford such highly priced drugs can still have access to hepatitis treatment.
Since Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) has been coming across a lot of criticism regarding the high rates of its drugs, therefore recently it has been striving to make its drugs a little reasonable, so that they can be afforded in the less economically privileged countries
In accordance with these efforts, Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) has been making quite a number of deals with drug manufacturing companies in India, allowing these companies to come up with cheaper and generic versions of Sovaldi. These low-cost HCV drugs are being manufactured for 91 developing and under developed countries of the world.
Statistics suggest that approximately 150 million people in the world are suffering from Hepatitis C. From this 150 million, a large proportion of affected people belong to either developing or under developed countries. Of the total population that makes up the hepatitis patients, more than half i.e. approximately 73% of the patients come from low-income countries. This data has been brought forward by Doctors without Borders.
A recent deal was finalized between Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) and Natco Pharma Ltd. (BOM:524816) for the production of generic versions of Sovaldi in Nepal. In context of this deal, a statement was made by Hitesh Mahida, who happens to work as an analyst at Antique Stock Broking. Mahida said that even though the competition between the manufacturing of these generic drugs is going to be intense; however the market is very wide to welcome all these versions.
Although, Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) has been giving licenses to many pharmaceutical companies for the production of generic versions of its block buster HCV drug, Sovaldi; yet, Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. did not seek any such license from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD). A major reason for this is that the latter company belongs to Bangladesh, and Bangladesh is alleviated from all patent protection rules, being a very non-developed country, according to the WTO treaty.
