The $2m drug reveals medical research as a casino culture | Kenan Malik

Does Zolgensma, a revolutionary one-off treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, really need to cost so much?How much is a life worth? $2.15m? That ’s thestaggering price of a drug produced by the pharmaceutical giant Novartis that has just come on the market. Zolgensma is a one-off gene therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare degenerative disorder. Infants with the most severe form usually die within two years. For parents of babies born with SMA, any price is worth paying to save the child ’s life. Novartis argues that spread across a lifetime, $2.15m is “cost-effective”.It points out, too, the expense of developing such innovative drugs. In this case, though, Novartis did not develop Zolgensma but bought up, for £8.7bn, AveXis Inc, the company that did. TheWall Street Journal described the acquisition as a “bet”. The price of Zolgensma is the return necessary for that gamble to be successful.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Novartis Pharmaceuticals industry NHS Medical research Science Health Society Business UK news Source Type: news