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Novartis ‘Urgently’ Working To Improve Zolgensma Access Program

‘Lottery-Style’ Scheme Has Gone Down Better Outside Europe

 
• By Francesca Bruce and Sue Sutter

Criticism of Novartis/Avexis’s controversial lottery style managed access program for Zolgensma has come largely from Europe, while other countries in Latin America and Asia have been far more receptive.

airport runway under the sun as background
Novartis is continuing with its Zolgensma managed access program

Amid fierce criticism of the lottery style managed access program for the gene therapy Zolgensma, Novartis AG/AveXis Inc. say they are working “with a sense of urgency” with clinicians and patients to improve the program. Avexis also warned at the Expanded Access Summit in Washington, DC that bad press could persuade companies with gene therapies to avoid managed access programs altogether.

Novartis/Avexis came under attack from EU member states, patient groups and legal experts for its managed access program for Zolgensma, a one-off gene therapy for treating spinal muscular atrophy. (Also...

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