Payers Should Brace For Next Hepatitis C Drug “Onslaught” – Express Scripts

Express Scripts anticipates that the launch of new treatments in 2014 will replicate some of the dynamics in the hepatitis C market in 2011.

Commercial payer spending on hepatitis C drugs will begin to surge again in 2014 as new treatments and newly diagnosed patients drive an expected 56% year-over-year increase, Express Scripts Holding Co. projects in its 2012 Drug Trend Report.

Hepatitis C drug spending grew 34% in 2012, led by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Incivek (telaprevir) and Merck & Co. Inc.’s Victrelis (boceprevir), and expenditures in the category are...

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