Florida to help Medicaid cover Sovaldi

Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) said it plans to make "kick payments" to Medicaid plans to help cover the cost of HCV drug Sovaldi sofosbuvir from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD). AHCA said the funds are event-based payments that represent the expected cost of treatment and will come from the current Medicaid budget. The agency said it intends to finalize details of the payment, including methodology and amount, by June 30. The payments will cover costs of Sovaldi from May 1, 2014, forward; the agency is also considering paying plans to cover costs incurred even earlier in the year.

AHCA said 20,600 Florida Medicaid patients were diagnosed with HCV last year, but declined to disclose how many would meet the criteria the agency outlined for treatment with Sovaldi or another HCV drug, Olysio simeprevir from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). The criteria include having stage 3 or 4 disease, particular genotypes of the virus and a minimum viral load. ...