Novartis’s one-time treatment for a devastating infant muscle-wasting disease won approval from the FDA Friday. Photo: /Associated Press By Denise Roland Updated May 24, 2019 6:59 p.m. ET The world’s most expensive medicine is about to hit the market.
Gene therapies promise the chance to cure diseases whose diagnoses were death sentences, but the prices for the first few to be greenlighted raise concerns about whether they can be afforded by governments and health insurers that have been struggling to control health spending. Novartis also defended the overall price by comparing it to a treatment already on the market. David Lennon, head of Novartis’s AveXis unit that developed Zolgensma, said in a call with reporters it would cost half that of the current standard treatment, Spinraza, over a 10-year period.
ICER had previously said Zolgensma should cost no more than $1.5 million, but updated its analysis after new clinical trial data showed promising results in very young babies treated before the symptoms of SMA set in.Zolgensma “is highly cost effective and represents a product at a fair and reasonable price,” Dr. Lennon said.
“Today’s approval marks another milestone in the transformational power of gene and cell therapies to treat a wide range of diseases,” acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless said in a statement. Novartis had been trying to lay the groundwork for Zolgensma’s price tag by talking publicly about a multimillion-dollar figure and playing up the therapy’s effectiveness.
Just 41 tweets on this one!!! The human genome project was funded by taxpayers. Yet, the drug, that saves infants, will cost $2 M. If this is not a crime then what is? Guess what! Abortion is ...in Alabama
Shame on you Novartis for this price tag. RepAOC have you seen this?
What’s the copay?
We funded your R&D from our taxes. Now, let us decide what we want to do with our product! We paid for it, you take your hands off it and we benefit from it! You filthy and corrupted FDA and Novartis! Shame on you! - RT MedicareForAll FollowMe/IFollowU
Pricing Mechanism!!! More transparent is needed from companies about real costs to justify these prices ... Value+cost-based pricing can establish reasonable prices even if its high unless justified.
When the ordinary people can't afford the price, it loses its value.
Since 1/2 of Big Pharma’s drugs are poisonous, I think we should boycott their products & eliminate their sales.
厉害了👍
Great news for families with SMA kids. Pity about the price. Negotiation needed.
I’m not saying $2MM is the right price. But to those who are very upset I ask, what should it cost?
Why even print something like this when you know it's going to make people not just mad, but disgusted at the 'million ' dollar price tag.. no justification for it.. Does the FDA only approve the drug ? What about pricing?
AbdulrazaqAlJa3
How much taxpayer funding was used
I doubt this will hit formularies at that price.
2) The majority of people don't see any of those options as okay.
1)This is absolutely disgusting. We have a right to be healthy. Imo not being able to afford the meds and choosing not to put yourself/family into debt could be looked at as the choice to die, as suicide. And not giving people the medication they need could be looked at as murder
So who the hell can afford this Absolutely ridiculous. A treatment that can cure a disease.. what good is it if you cannot afford it?
I hope no one buys this. FDA should implement reasonable price ceilings
realDonaldTrump do something
Wait until it gets to Mexico and buy it for $20. When are these Pharma Overcharga companies going to help Make America Great Again?
Everyone looks at the “cost” and “profit” but I would be more interested in how much they invested in the development- I’m sure it’s big maybe it’s 10mil, 100 mil 500 mil? Divide that by the of patients that will use it (small) to get a true picture and then follow up story
Does it send you as the first passengers to Mars with Virgin Galactic? Pharma companies know how to price drugs they should receive awards for their pricing...says no human being ever!
A two-million-dollar price tag can kill young children, too. bananas
Absolutely disgusting. How much of that drug did taxpayers subsidize? How much of the profits will we see How many lives will be lost
Life is very expensive.
Zolgensma They should have called it Gravedigsma.
Hypocrates is turning in his grave. This medicine is worthless. At $2million dollars it is beyond sanity. How much is a life worth? Is it $1, $100k, $2M, $1B, $10T? Absurdity and insanity had a Child, and it produced this price.
That's absurd.....just like the aids prophylactic being 20k a month....seriously, just stop having risky sex....this is insane and a ripoff to the insurance industry.
Well it is a one time treatment for infants. So the infant has many years to repay. While parents can simply go bankrupt to drop the down payment. On the plus side, the parents have 'choice' to choose insurance! Unlike Obamacare. We'd rather pay $2M
this is INSANE!
What’s the point of selling it if nobody can buy it
I hope I don't get whatever that fixes.
I’d rather die
If you plant one will a money tree grow?
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