Gilead Sciences Inc. won U.S. approval Friday to begin selling the first pill that promises to cure most hepatitis C patients without requiring other medicines, but its near $100,000 cost will likely further inflame tensions between drug companies and health insurers over spiraling prices.

The drug, dubbed Harvoni, builds on Gilead’s blockbuster Sovaldi treatment, which recorded the biggest drug launch in history after going on sale late last year and is itself a lightning rod for critics of drug prices.

Sovaldi alone costs $84,000 for a typical course and must be combined with other therapies. Analysts estimate it racked up roughly $9 billion in sales during the first nine months of this year.

The new drug combines Sovaldi with another agent into a single orange pill that needs be taken just once a day to cure most patients. Its cost: $94,500 for the most typical patients, who will be treated for 12 weeks.

The escalating price for treating hepatitis C, which affects more than three million Americans, has been a sore point for health insurers and drug-benefit managers facing a mounting dilemma: how to balance use of a medicine that can prevent tens of thousands of deaths without breaking the bank.