Analyst: 160,000 Patients Affected by AbbVie Inc. Hepatitis Pact

AbbVie Inc.'s

agreement to be the exclusive hepatitis C treatment supplier to pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts Holding Co.

affects up to about 160,000 people in the U.S. suffering from the disease, according to calculations an analyst offered Tuesday. Hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that may cause cirrhosis of the liver and other complications, can be treated with AbbVie's recently launched Viekira Pak, as well as with Gilead Sciences Inc.'s

Harvoni and Solvaldi drugs. Evercore ISI's Mark Schoenebaum said the Abbvie agreement affects up 5.5 percent of the 3.2 million people in the U.S. suffering from the disease. Roughly 1 million of U.S. victims are covered by private insurers, 1 million by the Veterans Administration. Another 1 million are covered by Medicaid and about 550,000 by prisons, according to Anthony, who cited 2013 figures from Miller, a Seattle actuarial firm. Express Scripts manages drug benefits for between 8 percent and 15 percent of patients served by private plans, Anthony said. A standard course of Gilead's Harvoni hepatitis treatment costs a reported $94,500; Gilead's Sovaldi hepatitis drug, also affected by the Express Scripts decision, costs $84,000 per patient. AbbVie had initially priced its newly launched Viekira Pak hepatitis drug near at a similar level, but offered a rumored discount of 40 percent to Express Scripts.