Damian here with the precarious case of gene therapy in Europe, a long-awaited coup for Novavax, and the unwinding of Amgen’s success story.
The need-to-know this morning
• Sanofi will spend up to $1.5 billion to co-develop and co-commercialize Teva’s experimental arthritis drug as a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease.
• Eli Lilly announced a reshuffling of its leadership, including promoting David Hyman to chief medical officer.
Does gene therapy have a future in Europe?
For Stella Pelteki, who has lived with a blood disorder since birth, the 2019 European approval of a gene therapy for her disease had life-changing potential. But within months, that promise came unglued as the manufacturer failed to persuade continental governments to pay the treatment’s $1.8 million million price tag, leaving Pelteki and thousands of others without access to a long-awaited therapy.
As STAT’s Andrew Joseph reports, the ordeal demonstrated what can happen when a company touting a pricey, powerful treatment collides with cost-conscious national health systems empowered to negotiate prices and skeptical of some of the therapy’s benefits. And in Europe, some fear it could happen again.
