Gilead Subsidiary Wins Louisiana’s ‘Netflix’ Hep C Contract

Gilead subsidiary Asegua Therapeutics won the exclusive contract to treat Louisiana’s poor and imprisoned hepatitis C patients, health officials in the Pelican State announced.

The so-called “Netflix” contract, which sets a fixed price to treat nearly 40,000 hep C patients, attracted bids from Merck and AbbVie. The five-year contract gives Louisiana officials unrestricted access to the company’s Epclusa, a generic treatment shown to cure 98 percent of patients.

Under the terms of the agreement, Louisiana will set a cap of about $35 million per year to treat hep C patients. Less than three percent of Medicaid’s hep C patients have received treatment and Louisiana health officials aim to treat at least 10,000 treated by the end of next year. State officials hope to have the contract signed by June 1.

For Asegua, the payment model guarantees a fixed revenue for a contracted period of time and will allow the company to expand its product reach into populations that otherwise would not have received treatment, Edwards said.