On December 19, 2014, Abbvie (ABBV) received FDA approval for its all oral, interferon-free treatment regimen for patients with the genotype-1 chronic hepatitis C infection. Abbvie will market its hepatitis C drug under the market name VIEKIRA PAK and will price its drug at around $83,319, which is slightly lower than Gilead Sciences (GILD) drug, Sovaldi, coming in at $84,000 dollars.

Like Sovaldi, Abbvie's drug is a 12-week treatment regimen. 

Although Gilead Sciences' Harvoni -- the combination of Sovaldi with another drug regimen -- causes greater efficacy over VIEKIRA PAK, the Gilead product still has the upper hand. This is because Harvoni only requires patients to take one pill per day, while Abbvie's VIEKIRA PAK requires patients to take four pills per day -- three pills in the morning and one in the evening. Although Harvoni carries a higher price tag, coming in at $94,000 dollars for one 12-week course, some patients only need to take Harvoni for eight weeks instead of the full 12, and that treatment plan costs $63,000 dollars. 

Shares of Gilead Sciences took a huge hit Monday, closing down 14.34% to 92.90 per share after Abbvie announced that it has closed an exclusive deal with a major healthcare company known as Express Scripts (ESRX) to carry VIEKIRA PAK. This may or may not hurt Gilead Sciences. Analysts and investors apparently believe this new partnership between Abbvie and Express Scripts could hurt future sales of Sovaldi/Harvoni, but it is unclear which drug maker will win out in the end.

But, for the time being, both companies should be able to generate substantial revenues for their hepatitis C treatments. This is why we believe that both Abbvie and Gilead Sciences are good long term plays in the pharmaceutical industry.