Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for bluebird bio’s Skysona, a gene therapy which aims to treat the progression of neurologic dysfunction in boys ages 4-17 with early, active cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD).
While not a curative treatment, Skysona can result in a tremendous improvement in quality of life for many patients suffering from this ultra-rare and fatal neurological disorder, and represents exciting scientific and medical advancements. The treatment, also known as eli-cel, is expected to be available at a limited number of qualified treatment centers by the end of the year.
However, at a set $3 million wholesale acquisition price, this lifesaving treatment – and other similar cellular and gene therapies like it – also present an enormous financial risk to self-insured plan sponsors, stop loss carriers, payers, and reinsurers. BCS has been closely monitoring the gene therapy pipeline, and has developed clinical and financial stop-loss and reinsurance solutions designed specifically to help protect against this growing category of expensive and unpredictable high-cost claims.
For more information about coverage that may be available, contact Blake Schraft at [email protected].
