Earlier this month, Brazil’s National Supplementary Health Agency (ANS) included drug Zolgensma on the list of treatments that private health insurance plans must cover. The cost of the medicine, which is a one-time gene therapy used to treat a rare disorder known as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), is in the millions of dollars. Previously, patients’ families could only get their hands on the medication after going to court.
By October 2021, court decisions had forced Brazil’s Health Ministry to fund the treatment of 46 patients at a total cost of USD 79 million. The average drug cost of USD 1.7…