On Tuesday, Shares of Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), gained 1.70% to $103.41.
Outsiders don’t want their daughters to marry any local boys, according to the village elders swapping stories in a tailor’s shop behind the Sikh temple, because most residents are infected with black jaundice, according to Bloomberg.
That’s what they call hepatitis C, which is so common in parts of India’s Punjab state that the tailor-shop gossips might not be off base in their estimate. But prevalence could be something of an advantage these days. Drugmakers have made the village of Lande Rode one of the theaters in a battle to grab market share for sofosbuvir, a miracle cure that Gilead Sciences Inc. sells in the U.S. as Sovaldi at a retail price of $1,000 a pill. Gilead licensed 11 Indian companies to make generic versions, and they sealed marketing deals with others. Competition has been so fierce it’s driven down the cost and spurred thousands to be tested.
The companies sponsor screening drives, hand out free test kits to hospitals and offer bulk discounts to entire villages. Sofosbuvir was cheap by most any standard when it hit the market in Punjab at $10 in March. Then the cost kept dropping, to as low as $4.29, and doctors predict it will continue to fall. Bloomberg Reports
Gilead Sciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines in areas of unmet medical need in North America, South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. The company’s products comprise Stribild, Complera/Eviplera, Atripla, Truvada, Viread, Emtriva, Tybost, and Vitekta for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in adults; and Harvoni, Sovaldi, Viread, and Hepsera products for the treatment of liver disease.
Shares of Mast Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSEMKT:MSTX), inclined 3.39% to $0.42, during its current trading session.
Mast Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:MSTX) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Thursday, Analyst Ratings.Net reports.
Mast Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops therapies for serious or life-threatening diseases. The company’s lead product candidate is MST-188 (vepoloxamer), an injection used for the treatment of sickle cell disease, arterial disease, and heart failure. It also develops AIR001, a sodium nitrite solution for intermittent inhalation via nebulizer, for the treatment of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Finally, Shares of Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) are trading with 1.74% gain.
Amgen declared that its Board of Directors declared a $1.00 per share dividend for the first quarter of 2016. The dividend will be paid on March 8, 2016, to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on Feb. 16, 2016. This represents a 27 percent improvement from that paid in each of the previous four quarters.
Amgen Inc., a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers human therapeutics worldwide. It focuses for the treatment of illness in the areas of oncology, hematology, inflammation, bone health, nephrology, cardiovascular, and general medicine. The company’s principal products comprise Neulasta, a pegylated protein to decrease the incidence of infection associated with chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in cancer patients; NEUPOGEN, a recombinant-methionyl human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for reducing the incidence of infection as manifested by febrile neutropenia for patients with non-myeloid malignancies; and Enbrel to treat rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis in adult patients.
