Cigna covering Exondys 51

Cigna Corp. (NYSE:CI) will cover Exondys 51 eteplirsen from Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT) to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) "in patients who have a confirmed mutation of a specific section of the DMD gene," Cigna spokesperson Karen Eldred told BioCentury.

FDA granted accelerated approval to Exondys 51 this month to treat DMD that is amendable to exon 51 skipping. The drug is a phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer (PMO) that induces skipping of exon 51 in dystrophin mRNA (see BioCentury, Sept. 26). ...