UnitedHealth: New hepatitis C drug costs far more than forecast

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UnitedHealth: New hepatitis C drug costs far more than forecast

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/unitedhealth-says-first-quarter-profit-fell-reform-costs-113240817--sector.html"><img src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/tc.9jcYMx6IRYZvozcH0iw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-04-17T182955Z_3_CBREA3G0W2K00_RTROPTP_2_USA-HEALTHCARE-TECHNOLOGY.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="A man looks over the Affordable Care Act signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York in this photo illustration" align="left" title="A man looks over the Affordable Care Act signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York in this photo illustration" border="0" /></a>UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest U.S. health insurer, said it spent more than $100 million to cover a pricey new hepatitis C drug from Gilead Sciences Inc in its first three months on the market, an amount that was &quot;multiple&quot; times what it had expected. UnitedHealth is the first insurer to quantify its costs to cover patients using Gilead's new Sovaldi treatment, whose $84,000 price tag has spurred a national outcry over the rising costs of specialty medicines. UnitedHealth shares fell nearly 4 percent on Thursday and shares of rivals WellPoint Inc and Aetna Inc fell 3.8 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, as investors weighed what their potential costs could be as well. Sovaldi has been shown to cure most patients of the liver-wasting virus with few side effects, but health officials, insurers and Medicaid directors are balking at the cost.</p><br clear="all"/>

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