First eczema biologic debuts but price could restrict use

First eczema biologic debuts but price could restrict use


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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Dupixent won approval on March 28 for treating people with severe-to-moderate eczema who can't get relief from existing topical


corticosteroid therapies. For this population—an estimated 1–5% of the 32 million people in the US with the disease—“this is going to be a real lifeline,” says Amy Paller, a dermatologist at


Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Evanston, Illinois, who has consulted for the two companies behind Dupixent, Regeneron of Tarrytown, New York, and Sanofi of


Paris. “It's going to totally change practice. For the first time, we have a biologic that really works.” The drug doesn't come cheap, though. Its sticker price: $37,000 per year


before discounts, which is well above the cost of topical steroids and immunosuppressants such as cyclosporine and calcineurin inhibitors. For this reason, healthcare analysts like Ian Love,


who covers the eczema space for Decision Resources Group of Burlington, Massachusetts, expect insurance companies to balk at covering Dupixent until after patients have failed to respond to


other therapies. “It's a tough sell,” Love says—even though, as he points out, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a Boston-based cost-effectiveness watchdog, concluded in


a March 24 report that the new biologic offers good value for money, especially for patients with more severe disease. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution


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FAQs * Contact customer support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Somerville, Massachusetts Elie Dolgin Authors * Elie Dolgin View author publications You can also search for


this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Dolgin, E. First eczema biologic debuts but price could restrict use.


_Nat Biotechnol_ 35, 391–392 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0517-391 Download citation * Published: 09 May 2017 * Issue Date: May 2017 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0517-391 SHARE


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