Illinois-based Marathon Pharmaceuticals will sell its $89,000-a-year Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug to PTC Therapeutics, following weeks of public and political outcry over the drug's price.
NJ-based PTC Therapeutics will pay $140 million in cash and stock for Emflaza. Marathon also will receive payments from PTC based on sales of the drug starting in 2018.
Marathon announced last month that it would charge a list price of $89,000 a year for the drug, which is available outside the U.S. for $1,000 a year. This resulted in several angry letters from lawmakers to the company, as well as to the FDA questioning the drug's approval. The FDA approved Emflaza in February of this year -- the first FDA approval of any corticosteroid to treat DMD and the first approval of deflazacort for any use in the United States.
Read the Chicago Tribune article