The existing treatment is a $150,000 liver transplant. In addition to being more expensive than the new drug, it isn't as good a treatment (among other things, anti rejection medications for life).
This drug really brings to focus the various issues and interests involved in developing new drugs. It's a better, cheaper treatment (that cures!) and still the price tag is easy to balk at.
liver transplant is not a treatment of hep c, as far as I know, it's a treatment of liver failure as a consequence of chronic hep c (~30% of chronic hep c patients end up in with cirrhosis), the patient still has hep c.
This drug really brings to focus the various issues and interests involved in developing new drugs. It's a better, cheaper treatment (that cures!) and still the price tag is easy to balk at.