CMS will now cov­er pricey CAR-T ther­a­pies for Medicare pa­tients

The Cen­ters for Medicare and Med­ic­aid (CMS) has been busy. Ear­li­er this week, the agency pre­scribed ways to re­sus­ci­tate the fledg­ling an­tibi­ot­ic in­dus­try by re­struc­tur­ing the pay­ment ap­pa­ra­tus for new an­tibi­otics. On Wednes­day, CMS un­veiled its de­ci­sion to cov­er CAR-T can­cer ther­a­pies — which can cost up to $1 mil­lion per pa­tient — for Medicare ben­e­fi­cia­ries.

The cell ther­a­pies — No­var­tis’ $NVS Kym­ri­ah and Gilead’s $GILD Yescar­ta — se­cured FDA ap­proval in 2017 for blood can­cers, in­clud­ing lym­phoma and leukemia.

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