Dose costs 3.5 million dollars: the most expensive drug in the world just before approval
Created: 12/16/2022, 10:24 p.m
By: Momir Takac
Hemgenix is the most expensive drug in the world (icon image).
© IMAGO/Vernon Yuen
According to studies, the drug Hemgenix is revolutionizing the treatment of hemophilia.
However, this has its price.
Amsterdam – There is a new leader in the price of medicine on the pharmaceutical market.
So far, "Zolgensma" was the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis
as the most expensive drug in the world.
The drug "Hemgenix" from the US manufacturer CSL Behring has now passed.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), based in Amsterdam, has now recommended conditional approval of the drug, which is used to treat blood clotting disorders.
Adults are treated with it against severe and moderate hemophilia B - a bleeding disorder.
Most expensive drug in the world comes from the USA
The EMA speaks of conditional approval of a drug "if the benefit to public health of immediate availability outweighs the risk that additional data will be required," says the authority's website.
In the US, the price of the drug, which only has to be administered once, is estimated at $3.5 million.
According to the science
magazine Nature
and other sources, it is currently the most expensive preparation in the world.
The previous leader, Zolgensma, which treats spinal muscular atrophy, costs about two million dollars.
The fate of little John, who badly needed a dose of Zolgensma, had moved Germany.
Hemgenix facilitates treatment of hemophilia B disease
The disease hemophilia B, in which blood clotting is impaired due to hereditary factors, is very rare.
According to the EMA, about 1 in 20,000 to 50,000 male newborns suffers from it.
Existing drugs are aimed at improving blood coagulation as a preventive measure or in acute cases.
However, they have to be administered again and again, writes the EMA.
Hemgenix, on the other hand, causes the liver to start producing the missing substances for blood clotting itself.
After the recommendation, it is now up to the EU Commission.
It still has to decide on the EU-wide conditional market approval.
While Hemgenix costs millions of dollars, fever medications are available for peanuts.
But in Germany fever juices are currently scarce.
(mt/dpa)