Ver­tex strikes agree­ment with Aus­tralia for cys­tic fi­bro­sis pill, end­ing high-pro­file stand­off

Ver­tex reached an agree­ment on Sun­day to sell its newest cys­tic fi­bro­sis drug in Aus­tralia, end­ing a high-pro­file stand­off over ac­cess to a life-al­ter­ing but ex­pen­sive rare dis­ease drug.

As with most agree­ments be­tween drug­mak­ers and na­tion­al pay­ment sys­tems, Ver­tex and the Aus­tralian Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Ben­e­fits Scheme didn’t say how much. But they said it will give 2,200 CF pa­tients in the coun­try ac­cess to Trikaf­ta, the pill shown to dra­mat­i­cal­ly im­prove lung func­tion in 90% of CF pa­tients, in­clud­ing 700 who weren’t el­i­gi­ble for pre­vi­ous Ver­tex drugs be­cause of their par­tic­u­lar ge­net­ic mu­ta­tions.

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