Per Seeking Alpha

CVS Health (CVS -1.3%) bestows Preferred Status to Gilead Sciences’ (GILD +2.3%) Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) and Harvoni (ledipasvir/sofosbuvir) for the treatment of HCV infection. The pills will be the exclusive treatment option for beneficiaries on CVS’s Medicare, Medicaid and other drug benefit plans. AbbVie’s (ABBV -2.9%) Viekira Pak will be available only via a medical exception or prior authorization. Recently, AbbVie announced a similar deal with Express Scripts.

In any event, Gilead’s loss of its monopoly status is leading to lower pricing on its Hepatitis C drugs, which is good news.