In the United States, the American drug agency has validated the sale of a new drug at exuberant cost. It’s the Swiss laboratory Novartis who communicated on this subject Friday, May 24.
The drug in question? Zolgensma, which provides gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy. It costs exactly $ 2.125 million. The pathology in question was so far incurable. It is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a defective gene, the result of which is muscle atrophy.
A disease with 2 years of life expectancy
When a baby is born with spinal muscular atrophy, they gradually lose their vital reflexes. Swallowing, breathing, or even walking and speaking gradually disappear. Usually, life expectancy does not exceed 2 years. The exorbitantly expensive drug treats this disease in a single dose, compared to other longer treatments.
These other drugs, which pre-exist Zolgensma, would cost even more according to the laboratory Novartis. Recently, the Spinraza was developed by Biogen, it costs 750,000 dollars the first year and 350,000 the following years. In any case, the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy is extremely expensive, in a country where the social security system is very weak.
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