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Morningstar: Gilead Sciences To Grow Its Hepatitis C Market

Karen Andersen was recently a guest on #PreMarket Prep, a daily trading idea radio show hosted by Joel Elconin and Dennis Dick.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD)'s is fighting competition for its hepatitis C drugs by expanding its access to patients, an analyst told Benzinga Friday.

Morningstar's Karen Andersen said that despite AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV)'s launch of its competing hepatitis treatment viekira pak late last year, Gilead is "doing a great job of hanging on to patient access" partly by discounting prices.

Early this year, Gilead obtained an agreement to serve as the exclusive supplier of hepatitis C drugs to pharmacy benefits manager CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS).

AbbVie obtained a similar agreement with Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX) in December.

Gilead grew 2014 revenue 118 percent on the strength of its Sovaldi hepatitis treatment launched in December 2013 and Harvoni in October 2014.

"People are starting to wonder how much growth is left and what the competitive landscape is like," Andersen said.

Gilead shares are up about 7 percent year-to-date, versus about 17 percent for the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index.

But Andersen said improvements in the number of patients with access to Gilead's hepatitis C treatment "is going to feed growth" and she remains bullish on the company's prospects.

Latest Ratings for GILD

Feb 2015

Credit Suisse

Downgrades

Outperform

Neutral

Feb 2015

Citigroup

Maintains

Buy

Feb 2015

UBS

Maintains

Buy

View More Analyst Ratings for GILD
View the Latest Analyst Ratings

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© 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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