The drug has been used to treat 100 SMA patients and brought in $160 million for drugmaker Novartis last quarter, which ended Sept. 30, beating analysts estimates of $86 million to $106 million.
Novartis told STAT that about 99 percent of SMA patients that qualified for Zolgensma received coverage for the one-time therapy and that the company has agreements in place covering 90 percent of commercially insured patients and 30 percent of Medicaid patients.
The strong sales came after the company faced controversy involving manipulation of data in Zolgensma’s application to the FDA. The FDA said in August that Novartis knew preclinical data was falsified before it was approved in May but did not inform the FDA until after the drug was approved.
Dave Lennon, PhD, president of Novartis’ gene therapy business, told STAT the scandal had no real effect on Zolgensma’s sales.
Novartis expects revenue from Zolgensma to grow, especially because it expects to secure approval for the drug in Europe and Japan next year. Additionally, the drugmaker recently presented data showing the drug’s effects on older SMA patients.
Read the full article here.
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