Gene therapy treatment for hereditary eye disease will cost $850,000
Last month, the FDA approved a gene therapy called Luxturna , which can treat a rare eye disease that causes blindness. Now the treatment has a price tag, CNBC reports. It will cost $425,000 per eye, and while $850,000 is steep, it's lower than the $1 million at which many expected the treatment to be priced. Spark Therapeutics, the company that developed Luxturna, is working out a variety of slightly unconventional payment structures in light of Luxturna's price. First, like Novartis Pharmaceuticals' one-time treatment Kymriah , for some, Luxturna's cost will be rebated if the sight of those receiving the treatment doesn't improve sufficiently. That rebate program was made with nonprofit health plan Harvard Pilgrim. Additionally, in partnership with Express Scripts, Spark has arranged it so that insurers can buy Luxturna directly instead of treatment centers having to purchase it first. That way, treatment centers don't have to worry about buying an expensi...