Drug companies interested in Louisiana hepatitis C drug plan

• Louisiana's Department of Health announced that Merck & Co., AbbVie and Gilead Sciences are interested in the state's plan to use a Netflix-style subscription model to buy access to hepatitis C drugs for Medicaid patients and prisoners, as reported in the Centre Daily Times.

• The three drugmakers have responded to the bid solicitation, and state officials plan to pick a contractor by mid-April and start the deal on July 1.

• Specifically, Louisiana wants to pay a fee to a drug company for unlimited access to its hepatitis C medication in a bid to treat as many patients as it can during the access period, rather than pay a per-patient treatment price.

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