Pharma: Novartis’ $4 million drug

Novartis executives may soon try to sell the world’s most expensive drug, a $4 million gene therapy to treat spinal muscular atrophy, said John Carroll in Endpoints News. The company bought the maker of the drug, biotech firm AveXis, last year for $8.7 billion. The only rival therapy costs $750,000 for the first year of treatment, then $375,000 each additional year. Even if Novartis fails to the hit $4 million price tag, it could be angling to open the door to drugs that cost $1 million, “once considered a jaw-dropping, break-the-bank sum.”