AbbVie, hepatitis C and patient deaths: What the wags say
In a setback to AbbVie, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday warned of liver damage from its two hepatitis C treatments, setting off a chain reaction that is reverberating across the pharmaceutical industry. With as many as seven patient deaths and several liver transplants attributed to the drugs, AbbVie stock plummeted and Wall Street fortune tellers went to work betting on winners and losers.
The serious side effects are “likely to be fatal for (AbbVie) brand, at least in the US,” writes Sector & Sovereign Research analyst Richard Evans in an investor note. He pointed out Viekira Pak already generated more adverse events than either Gilead drug. And the only way AbbVie was able to retain market share was to entice payers to place its drug on formularies, the lists of preferred medicines.