UK Health Watchdog Recommends Novartis Gene Therapy for Sight Disorder
September 04 2019 - 01:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Carlo Martuscelli
A U.K. regulator said Wednesday that it is recommending that the
National Health Service in England provides Luxturna, a gene
therapy for an inherited eye disease developed by Switzerland's
Novartis AG (NOVN.EB).
In its decision, the National Institute for Health and Care
Excellence noted that it was able to negotiate down the therapy
from its list price of 613,410 pounds ($742,084) per patient. It
didn't disclose the final price it reached with Novartis.
"The company's willingness to work with us early and
constructively has allowed us to publish this guidance on a much
faster timeline than normal which is good news for patients," said
Meindert Boysen, director of NICE's Centre for Health Technology
Evaluation.
The recommendation is for people with vision loss caused by
inherited retinal dystrophy from a mutation in the RPE65 gene. The
disease involves progressive loss of vision until near-total
blindness.
Luxturna is a one-time treatment that is intended to provide
patients with a working copy of the faulty gene. According to
Novartis, it is able to restore vision in people with the retinal
disease.
The Swiss pharmaceutical company estimates that some 86 patients
are eligible for treatment in England. NICE said that the
recommendation is currently at the draft stage. Barring appeals, it
expects to publish its final guidance next month.
Write to Carlo Martuscelli at carlo.martuscelli@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 04, 2019 01:14 ET (05:14 GMT)
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