Posted by Michael Wonder on 17 Jan 2019
Gene therapy drug Kymriah should be publicly covered if manufacturer drops price, report recommends
16 January 2019 - A groundbreaking gene therapy for cancer could cost the Canadian health care system more than $400 million over three years, according to a new report that recommends the drug be publicly covered, provided the manufacturer drops the price.
Part of the reason for the positive recommendation is that the new medication, tisagenlecleucel, is a promising last resort for patients who would otherwise die from aggressive childhood leukaemia or the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The new report, released Tuesday, comes from an expert panel convened by the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), the independent organisation that advises the provincial, territorial and federal governments on whether they should cover new drugs.
