Gilead's all-but-proprietary access to sell Truvada is the equivalent of Hershey’s controlling who has access to chocolate milk.
Of course, few people pay the full price of a medicine out-of-pocket. Insurance, for those who have it, helps lower out-of-pocket costs in many cases, though private insurers aren't required to do so until 2021. Gilead provides some patients a coupon for $7,200 worth of purchasing assistance per year, with no monthly limit . Teva's patient discounts are also $7,200 per year, but they’re limited to $600 per month — knocking its monthly cost down to around $855.
Meanwhile, generic versions of Truvada — Ricovir, Tavin-EM, or Tenof-EM — elsewhere in the world cost $210 to $720 per year. Ironically, Gilead put little of its own money into the research that developed Truvada, which is a combination of two medicines, tenofovir disoproxil and emtricitabine (though
THINK Why should any private company invest money to make pharmaceutical products and not patent it?
THINK Only because the Clintons worked out a deal with Big Pharma. Prices will stay high even after the Patents are up.
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