Prognosis
Employers Fear Squeeze From Genetic Cures That Cost Millions
- With new therapies coming to market, plans arise to pay bills
- Cigna marketing coverage for gene therapies to companies
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Employers and health plans fear they could be swamped financially by a coming wave of expensive new genetic therapies for rare diseases.
Regulators have recently approved two treatments that sell at many multiples of the prices of routine treatments for more common conditions. A Novartis AG drug for a fatal muscle-wasting disease that kills children in infancy costs $2.1 million for a one-time treatment. Another gene therapy for a hereditary form of blindness made by Spark Therapeutics Inc. costs $425,000 per eye.