After Decades, A Gene Therapy Is Approved. Next: The Debate On Price

 

This morning the Food and Drug Administration approved Luxturna, a gene therapy to treat a rare form of blindness in kids and adults that will be sold by Philadelphia-based Spark Therapeutics.

 

“The culmination of decades of research has resulted in three gene therapy approvals this year for patients with serious and rare diseases. I believe gene therapy will become a mainstay in treating, and maybe curing, many of our most devastating and intractable illnesses,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., in a prepared statement.

 

A price for the new treatment will not be announced until January. In a note to investors, Michael Yee, an analyst at the investment bank Jefferies, assumed a $1 million price and said that sales of $50 million would be possible in 2018. However, he wrote, investors may be expecting an even higher number, which may not be reasonable given that the treatment won’t be available at the start of the year. Still, he argues, the stock could go up because of the long-term value of Luxturna and other gene therapies Spark is developing…

 

Read the full article provided by Matthew Herper  here.