Paying for cell and gene therapy - Is the future already here?

The ascent of cell and gene therapies over the past few years has been astonishing. And their rise looks unstoppable: By 2025, the FDA expects it will be reviewing 10 to 20 of these transformative drugs per year.    But as we listen to affordability concerns from payers, providers and patients, we ’ve also had to ask, perhaps a bit provocatively, how we can afford to pay for this boom in future cures?  " Without solutions to help payers manage the cost, some of our members may make the choice to exclude coverage " , stated insurer CVS Health earlier in the year in its position paper on gene therapy. “Some plans are writing policies to exclude gene therapy,” confirms Cigna ' s SVP Steve Miller.   Exclusions may still be the exception, but they have already come in - for example from employer groups such as the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). Its regional members in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana – blue-collar essential workers in grocery stores, packing houses and distribution centers – received the notice last November that their plan would cease coverage of " any medical and/or prescription drug charges for or related to gene therapy, whether they have FDA approval, or are experimental. "    Current systems are simply not meant to manage a multitude of transformative therapies, says Carrie Edwards Wolkoff, Gene Therapy Payer Lead at Spark Therapeutics. “They are not designed for the future of cell and gene therapy.”  “In that future, i...
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news