Ron Wyden of Oregon and his Republican wingman Chuck Grassley of Iowa recently revealed the findings of their 18-month long investigation into Gilead Sciences and its Hepatitis C Drug Sovaldi.

The investigators after examining the internal documents of more than 20,000 pages and carrying out dozens of interviews with the company’s executives found that Gilead Sciences tried to make money out of its Hepatitis C drug Sovaldi.

The report provides the most transparent look ever into pricing decisions in the modern drug business. It shows that Gilead deliberatively set price for Sovaldi after checking the basis of clinical attributes, value determinations, market research and cost of presently available products in the market.

It was found that the drug gave higher-than-expected results, without any severe side effects that accompany interferon therapy.

Gilead Sciences believed that it would be clinically and economically justifiable to charge prices between $82,000 and $121,000 for a medicine which is far superior and more valuable medicine. The optimal price was at the lower end of the range i.e. $84,000, the company said.

The company in a statement said, “We stand behind the pricing of our therapies because of the benefit they bring to patients and the significant value they represent to payers, providers, and our entire health care system by reducing the long-term costs associated with managing chronic [hepatitis C virus]”.

The reports showed that price of Sovaldi put a large burden-notably among state Medicaid programs, Medicare, and the BOP-and triggered access restrictions across public and private payers.

The high price of the drug limited the number of Hepatitis C-infected patients who could access the new treatment options.