Posted on: 4 January 2018, source: IFLScience
The pharmaceutical company behind a gene therapy for inherited blindness has announced the product’s price, and sticker shock has sent news outlets worldwide into a collective tizzy. Spark Therapeutics plans to charge $425,000 per eye for the therapy, called Luxturna, making it the most expensive drug ever marketed in the US. The landmark FDA approval of Luxturna in December 2017 represented the first approval of a gene therapy for an inherited condition, and only the third-ever approval of a gene therapy.