The world's most pricey drugs, from a $1.2M gene therapy to a $450K lymphoma med

Fierce Pharma ------ When Biogen announced the price on its new rare disease drug Spinraza—$750,000 the first year and $375,000 after that—critics popped up immediately. Biogen and its partner Ionis saw their shares drop. Biogen tried to explain. It had “carefully considered” the price, spokesman Matt Fearer told CBS News, and in the context of its clinical value—and Biogen’s need to fund other R&D—Spinraza’s price “is fairly in line with other therapies for rare orphan diseases,” Fearer said. Since then, despite the complaints, analysts have raised their expectations for the drug, based on conversations with doctors and payers. But the pricing questions linger, if only in the context of the public debate—and political pushback—pharma’s been facing on its price-setting and price hikes for more than a year now. To learn more click on the picture below to read the article.