The $100,000 drug that costs $100 to make
25th February 2015
Pharma companies are notoriously secretive about their production outlays, especially for blockbuster drugs like sofosbuvir, which is set to radically change the treatment of hepatitis C.
However, a UK study has crunched the numbers, estimating that a 12-week course of this phenomenally expensive antiviral costs its manufacturer Gilead just $100 to make.
Given that a course of the drug - which was recently knocked back by the PBAC for being too expensive - is marketed at $84,000 (A$102,000) in the US, the mark-up is of unprecedented