Spark Therapeutics recently launched a new drug that can improve the vision of patients with a rare hereditary form of vision loss. That's not the only thing that is pioneering about this drug called Luxturna. Its price is too.
Spark announced last week that treatment will cost $850,000 a patient. "We believe that price reflects the type of life-altering value we're seeing with Luxturna in clinical trials and will allow us to build on revolutionary science," Spark Chief Executive Jeff Marrazzo told the Wall Street Journal. The company reportedly had considered setting the price even higher, at $1 million.
Spark says it will offer alternative payment arrangements to health insurers, including partial refunds if the drug doesn't work as advertised. The market of potential patients isn't huge: An estimated 1,000 to 2,000 Americans stand to benefit from this treatment, the company says.
But imagine you are one of those patients today. Imagine what Luxturna could mean to your life.
We're not here to celebrate nosebleed prices. But we do celebrate the genius that drives the development of such powerhouse drugs. And the free markets that allow companies to set prices so they reap profits from blockbuster drugs. Today's profits become the seed money for tomorrow's research on more new, perhaps miraculous, drugs.
The trouble with such medical miracles: They're not cheap. They never will be.
U.S. spending on prescription drugs has rocketed. Drug companies continue to launch novel medicines that bring breakthrough therapies to treat illnesses from multiple sclerosis to several forms of cancer. But prescription drug makers face not only the failure of new products, but also fierce competition. They have a limited time to sell new products before lower-cost generic versions are allowed.
In 2016, President Barack Obama named Vice President Joe Biden to command an American "moon shot" to cure cancer. Some of the latest prescription drug weapons in that war now reach similar stratospheric prices as Luxturna. But who wants to tell the drug companies to stop because the cost of a cure is too high?
What's fair? What's gouging? We don't know. Nor do politicians. Officials and activists may exert pressure to drive better bargains. But as long as the market largely decides prices, researchers will continue to find these medical miracles. The next one may vastly improve life for several thousand people. Or several million.
Editorial on 01/08/2018