To be cost-ef­fec­tive, Bio­gen should slash Spin­raza price, and No­var­tis can­not jus­ti­fy a $4M-$5M price tag for Zol­gens­ma — ICER

As treat­ments for rare dis­eases and gene ther­a­pies make strides on the US mar­ket, the is­sue of pric­ing is once again cen­ter stage. Bio­gen should cut the price of its spinal mus­cu­lar at­ro­phy (SMA) treat­ment Spin­raza and the price for No­var­tis’ one-shot Zol­gens­ma — which is ex­pect­ed to win FDA ap­proval by May — is jus­ti­fi­able up to $1.5 mil­lion, Boston-based ICER con­clud­ed on Wednes­day.

Akin to NICE in the UK, ICER is an in­de­pen­dent body that an­a­lyzes the cost-ef­fec­tive­ness of drugs and oth­er med­ical ser­vices in the Unit­ed States. Un­like NICE, though, ICER is not gov­ern­ment-af­fil­i­at­ed, but its de­ter­mi­na­tions are in­creas­ing­ly be­com­ing in­flu­en­tial with pay­ers.

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