His Job Is to Sell a $1,000 Pill for $10 Without Losing Money
- `We make a good target,' says Gilead Sciences' access chief
- Debate about rationing access to a life-saving medicine
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Gregg Alton has what seems like a disorienting job at Gilead Sciences Inc. He’s paid to figure out how to sell the drug Sovaldi, which infamously retails in the U.S. at $1,000 a pill, for relatively next to nothing.
The instructions for pricing the cure, which wipes out hepatitis C in just 12 weeks, basically go like this: “Get to as many patients as possible in low-income nations --and not lose money,” Alton says. “It’s very simple.”