How much will FX-322 cost?
David Lucchino, CEO of Frequency Therapeutics, was recently asked for some “rough ideas around [the] pricing and reimbursement” of FX-322.
Here is a lightly edited* almost-word-for-word transcript of David’s response**:
*EDITED HOW? Disconnected parts of speech and filler words such as umm, well, you know, etc., have been removed for sake of clarity.
**SPOILER ALERT: David, understandably, does NOT give us a specific number. He gives us the answer we all expected, that of a responsible CEO. As he says, “specifics around pricing and regulatory ‘really need to be managed and played out appropriately'” (in other words, NOT eagerly telling us “FX-322 WILL COST EXACTLY THESE MANY DOLLARS” while the drug is still in phase 2a clinical trials).
Alas.
Specifics? Best I can do is this:
HOST: […] walk us through your thinking around the target patient population and maybe some kind of rough ideas around pricing and reimbursement […]
DAVID LUCCHINO: I’m still evolving our understanding of this as we really work in partner with the FDA to understand exactly the true, we think, impact of our therapy. So it’s hard for me to speak in any absolutes. We know that the market is absolutely substantial and the unmet clinical need is very, very high. We think that hearing aids will continue to have a real role and be a good option for patients, though we think having a therapy that can truly start to heal someone’s hearing and create a healthy cochlea, if you will, is going to be a very strong value proposition both with or without hearing aids. I think that specifics around pricing and regulatory, those really need to be managed and played out appropriately. I think that we’re aware of what hearing aids are priced at, and we’re aware of what cochlear implants are priced at, and how hearing aids are handled from a regulatory standpoint and our goal is to deliver a highly effective therapy and do it in a way where we can continue to build out a very successful company that investors will recognize for years and years to come.
HOST: Excellent, super helpful.
SOURCE: Where is this from? These comments were made during a live Q&A at the Oppenheimer Virtual Fall Healthcare Life Sciences & MedTech Summit, which took place on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 10:00 am Eastern Time.
As David’s comments suggest, a lot of work goes into determining the price of a treatment such as FX-322. Meanwhile, the drug only recently completed enrollment for its Phase 2a study.
So don’t expect any “Hey it will cost THIS many dollars” answers yet…
For now, this recent commentary is the most recent and up-to-date information regarding FX-322’s price tag. Straight from the CEO’s mouth.
And let’s be honest, it is the reply we all expected… But with some interesting “price anchoring” thrown in with the mention of hearing aid costs (average price: $2372) and cochlear implant costs (average price: between $30,000-$100,000).***
Why would David mention those price points? How do drug companies calculate price? How do comparisons and price anchoring factor into that calculation?
Hmmmm…
Let the speculation begin!
LINK TO VIDEO: If you want to watch the interview, here is a link to the video recording of the Frequency Therapeutics virtual event webcast (the FX-322 pricing-related comments begin at around 39:00):
https://wsw.com/webcast/oppenheimer5/freq/2713518
And…
If you want an easy way to follow FX-322 including any future updates RE: cost of FX-322, join the weekly email update list. It’s a free, once-weekly email [starting soon] that lists all the new links that were added to this site’s front page during the previous 7 days. No spam, no nonsense.
***Reference: https://www.hearingtracker.com/how-much-do-hearing-aids-cost, https://www.hearingtracker.com/cochlear-implants#a-how-much-do-cochlear-implants-cost.