Spark Therapeutics announced it will charge $850,000 per patient for its Luxturna breakthrough gene therapy treatment —- a lower price than analysts and investors had predicted.
The FDA approved Luxturna in December, making it the first ever approved a gene therapy for an inherited disease. The treatment promises to help restore sight for patients with a rare genetic condition.
Most had predicted that Spark would charge around $1 million for the one-time treatment. In addition to the price coming in lower than expected, Spark also created a number of payment models to help reduce costs for insurers as well as a performance-based discount program.
Spark’s pricing concessions and performance-based pricing model could potentially make the drug a trendsetter for other gene therapies as they gain approval in a market sensitive to high drug prices.
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