This drug is a huge jump forward in the treatment of HCV. Most patients who take this drug will be cured and they won't have to take interferon at the same time, which produces side effects so severe, many patients discontinue therapy.

So even though you have an $84K per course price tag, patients given this drug get cured, significantly reducing the overall burden to the healthcare system, especially if they don't need a liver transplant.

One of the difficult things in showing value in the healthcare system is that nobody is looking at the overall costs. Hospitals worry about their costs, insurance companies about theirs. So even if a drug saves money overall, you'll often find many healthcare providers saying "no" because it doesn't save them money.