Morningstar: Gilead Sciences Inc. To Grow Its Hep C Market

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Gilead Sciences Inc.'s

is fighting competition for its hepatitis C drugs by expanding its access to patients, an analyst told Benzinga Friday Morningstar's Karen Andersen told Benzinga that despite AbbVie Inc.

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.

. Abbvie obtained a similar agreement with Express Scripts Holding Co.

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," Anderson said. Gilead shares are up about 7 percent in the year to date, versus about 17 percent for the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index. But Anderson 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.