A drug maker heavily criticized for high prices saw a sharp drop in sales at the end of last year, prompting it to cut sales staff.
Gilead Sciences reported Tuesday that its earnings fell 33 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 from the year before. A major reason for the drop is a sharp decline in sales of its hepatitis C cures Harvoni, which plunged 51 percent, and Sovaldi, which dropped an even bigger 65 percent.
The company expects sales to drop 22 percent in 2017 from 2016.
Gilead been harshly criticized by the public and Congress for the high prices of the hepatitis C cures. Sovaldi cost about $84,000 for a full 12-week regimen when it was released in 2014 and Harvoni nearly $100,000 for 12 weeks.
Company officials pushed back on the pricing criticisms, saying in an earnings call that the average price for a bottle was less than $15,000, with one bottle worth about one month of pills.
The lower sales led to a drastic hit on the company’s stock price, which was down 4 percent in after-hours trading.
The initial prices of both drugs caused a congressional outcry and an investigation.
A 2015 report from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, found that the company ignored concerns about cost and access when coming up with the price for Sovaldi.
“Gilead knew these prices would put treatment out of the reach of millions and cause extraordinary problems for Medicare and Medicaid, but still the company went ahead,” Wyden said.
Gilead isn’t the only drug company to feel congressional heat. Several generic drug makers have been criticized over the past few years for raising prices for older drugs that had no competition.
For instance, the CEO of generic drug-maker Mylan, Heather Bresch, went before the House Oversight Committee last year to defend the company’s 400 percent price hike of the allergy drug EpiPen.
