Payers, patients coming on board for Novartis’ Zolgensma

Novartis reported steady uptake for newly launched gene therapy Zolgensma, with about 40% of lives reimbursed via formal coverage policies and 17 payers signing up for the pharma’s novel pricing arrangement. But payers are resisting requests from patients and physicians to combine the one-time spinal muscular atrophy treatment with Biogen’s Spinraza nusinersen.

Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) launched Zolgensma onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi in May with a price tag of $2.125 million and immediately began offering payers a five-year pay-for-performance arrangement in which the pharma would refund up to 17% of the cost if patients experienced death or permanent ventilation. FDA approved the therapy May 24 to treat children under two with SMA with biallelic mutations in the SMN1 gene. The indication includes symptomatic as well as presymptomatic infants identified through genetic screening tests (see “AveXis Says Label Makes Zolgensma Gene Therapy ‘Treatment of Choice’”)...