AbbVie sales and marketing update

Missouri’s Medicaid agency said it will make AbbVie’s Viekira Pak its preferred regimen to treat HCV infection in exchange for undisclosed rebates. Missouri is part of a consortium of 24 states plus the District of Columbia that negotiated a rebate on Viekira, the combination of paritaprevir, an HCV NS3/4A protease inhibitor, ritonavir, an HIV protease inhibitor, and ombitasvir, an HCV NS5A protein inhibitor, plus dasabuvir, a non-nucleoside HCV NS5B polymerase inhibitor. The AbbVie regimen will replace Sovaldi sofosbuvir from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD, Foster City, Calif.) as the preferred treatment for HCV genotype 1 patients.

Missouri’s Department of Social Services (DSS) said Sovaldi will still be available to the estimated 15-20% of patients who cannot tolerate Viekira. DSS would not disclose the size of the rebate, but said that preferred formulary placement decisions are made once each year after soliciting the manufacturers for all drugs within a given class. ...