Posted by Michael Wonder on 02 Jul 2019
Innovation prizes to support cell and gene therapy
2 July 2019 - Personalised cell and gene therapy represent a fundamental therapeutic revolution.
However, with research and development costs for these therapies spread over far fewer patients than for traditional treatments, the revolution is arriving with eye-watering prices that shock even payers inured to the prices for targeted cancer and orphan drugs.
The payment controversy for cell and gene therapy highlights the erosion of patent-protected prices as a mechanism to finance pharmaceutical innovation. Industry prices work well for financing the development of drugs used by many patients over many years. In these cases, the fixed costs of research can be spread thinly across the large number of units sold. Even blockbusters that earn billions annually impose modest costs on each patient. However, this mechanism has come under ever-growing strain as innovation has shifted from blockbusters to personalised, targeted, and orphan drugs.
