A new record was broken in the field of medicine and pharmacy. It is the most expensive drug in the world. With a price of $3.5 million per dose, the drug has just been approved by US health authorities.
The Food and Drug Administrationthe public health regulatory agency for United Stateshas officially approved the use and sale of l’Hemgenixand medication to treat hemophilia B. Note that hemophilia B is a genetic disease caused by a deficiency of factor IX, which affects blood clotting. Thus, the disease is manifested by very high risks of hemorrhage in infected people. Hemgenix has been shown to reduce bleeding events by 54% over the course of a year.
The drug has also been proven to remain effective without the usual treatments to manage the disease, namely factor IX infusions. Produced and marketed by the biopharmaceutical laboratory CSL Behring, the dose for an infusion of this drug costs 3.5 million dollars. This makes Hemgenix the most expensive drug in the world, surpassing the record of Zynteglo from Bluebird Bio. Zynteglo is a gene therapy drug indicated for the treatment of a blood disorder and it costs $2.8 million a dose.
If Hemgenix is indeed effective, it remains to be seen whether patients with hemophilia B can afford to use it.
