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The decision by Express Scripts to make the AbbVie hepatitis C treatment the exclusive option for patients with the most common type of the virus caused a ruckus on Wall Street, although the reaction among some doctors and patient advocates was mixed. (Loftus, 12/22)

A newly-approved drug for Hepatitis C will be the only treatment covered for many patients whose employers use a company called Express Scripts for their pharmacy benefits. Last year, Gilead Sciences Inc. introduced a highly-effective hepatitis C drug, with an $84,000 price tag. Those kinds of prices have been more common for drugs treating conditions so rare they are sometimes called “orphan diseases." Hepatitis C, on the other hand, affects more than three million people. (Weismann, 12/22)

The nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager is throwing its weight into the fight over high-cost hepatitis C drugs with a coverage restriction that might ultimately lower prices and improve patient access to groundbreaking treatments for the liver-destroying virus. Express Scripts said Monday that it will no longer cover Sovaldi and Harvoni — two Gilead Sciences drugs that cost more than $80,000 each for a full course of treatment — or Johnson & Johnson's Olysio starting Jan. 1, except under limited circumstances. Instead, it will make AbbVie Inc.'s Viekira Pak, approved only Friday, the preferred treatment for patients who have the most common form of hepatitis C, genotype 1. (Murphy, 12/22)

Express Scripts, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit manager, will stop covering the expensive hepatitis C drug Sovaldi on Jan. 1. Instead, the St. Louis County-based company has opted for a rival drug, Viekira Pak, which the Food and Drug Administration approved on Friday. Express Scripts Holding Co. said the move would not only save employers money but would allow more people to receive life-saving medical treatment. (Liss, 12/21)