|
 Spinraza's list price is $750,000 in the first year, and $375,000
thereafter, while Novartis's gene therapy for the genetic muscle
wasting disease lists at $2.1 million, making it the drug industry's
most expensive one-time treatment.
Third-to-market risdiplam is due for a U.S. Food and Drug
Administration decision by May 24.
While Roche has not released risdiplam's price, drug chief Bill
Anderson said the Basel-based company will price the drug much as it
did its hemophilia A medicine Hemlibra in 2017, when it undercut
traditional therapies made by rivals NovoNordisk and Takeda to help
win patients.
"With Hemlibra, we priced at about half of bypassing agent,"
Anderson said in an interview on Monday at the JP Morgan Healthcare
Conference in San Francisco. "We aim to underwhelm with our price"
with risdiplam, he added.
Hemlibra costs around $500,000 a year. Treatment that includes
bypassing agents given to stop bleeding in hemophilia patients with
resistance to traditional clotting factor treatments can top $1
million.
Experts see Zolgensma becoming the treatment of choice for newborn
patients who test positive for SMA, because gene therapy may offer
infants yet to exhibit symptoms hope for normal development.
[to top of second column] |
Risdiplam, seen by analysts as topping $1 billion in annual sales,
and Spinraza, already a roughly $2 billion per year seller, are seen
competing for older patients. Oral, daily risdiplam may be less
complicated, given Spinraza is given every four months via an
infusion in the spine.
Zolgensma is also being tested in older patients with a spinal
infusion, though the trial has been halted due to safety concerns.
Novartis is awaiting the FDA's go-ahead to restart.
Novartis also is developing an oral drug, branaplam, though its
chief researcher, Jay Bradner, in December indicated the company had
cooled to the medicine, saying he did not "see a big opportunity for
oral therapy there, or we would develop this molecule further".
Novartis has since clarified its stance, saying its trial of
branaplam would continue, with a decision to be made after the study
produces data later this year.
(Reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco and John Miller in
Zurich; Editing by Susan Fenton)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
