Gilead, an American biotechnology company, is grabbing a lot of attention due to its new drug for hepatitis C, Sovaldi. The drug is quite promising as it has been successful in eliminating the virus in a number of patients. It is an interferon-free oral drug.

Not only this, Gilead is also developing another drug that is a combination of Sovaldi and a different drug called GS-5816. It is said the drug will cure all types of hepatitis C. After these two announcements, expectations have increased from Gilead.

Matt Herper of Forbes magazine has predicted that commercial launch of Sovaldi will be the best every in the industry. In fact, its first year sales are estimated to be $5 billion. There are chances that it breaks the record of Lipitor, Pfizer's cholesterol lowering drug.

One thing for which Gilead has been facing questions is the price of drug, 84,000 for a course of therapy. Members of Congress want explanation from the company for such a huge price. California congressmen Henry Waxman along with Republicans Frank Pallone and Diana DeGette want Gilead CEO Dr. John C Martin to brief about the drug's pricing.

He wants Mr. Martin to explain the methodology that the company has used while deciding the price of the drug. Mr. Waxman said their main concern is that people will not be able to take the treatment if it is not affordable.

ISI Group Analyst Mark Schoenebaum said the pricing can have an effect on 'generalist sentiment confidence'. Competition is such that reduction in price can make Gilead to see drug's sale getting affected. But it can also not be ignored that the drug is meant to witness one of the biggest commercial successes of all time.

"There are virtually no examples of purely branded markets where pricing goes down, but there are a lot of examples where pricing stays the same", said Schoenebaum.