Posted by Michael Wonder on 16 Dec 2016
Anthem, Humana, United push back on Sarepta's FDA approved DMD drug
14 December 2016 - Payers like Anthem, Humana and United Healthcare are either broadly denying or in United's case restricting coverage of Sarepta Therapeutics' FDA approved Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug, Jefferies analyst Gena Wang said Wednesday.
The U.S. FDA granted accelerated approval to Sarepta's Exondys 51 in September. The drug targets 13% of the DMD population with confirmed mutation of the dystrophin gene amenable to exon 51 skipping.
But the drug is costly. Sarepta estimates average annual cost at about $300,000 per patient. The majority of patients would be covered by Medicaid and benefit from a 23.1% discount. Private plans would likely get the same discount, Wang said.
